Just Talking? Shattered Illusions of Safety IV
by Tonks-is-cool
Summary: <html><head></head>Dark!Harry HBP AU: Mentor Lord Voldemort is possessive and protective of his former Horcrux. Harry is granted a favour for helping to save the other Horcruxes from destruction. Revenge on Umbridge! They also compare notes and discuss various topics: History, Regulus, magical theory, Parselmagic wards; War and Murder planing. Set in the Rise of the Dark Angel Universe by Mykkila09</html>
1. Prologue She will pay!

**Disclaimer:**This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling and Bloomsbury / Scholastic / Warner Bros. This is a work of fanfiction, no money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

**Summary and Setting: **the summer before sixth year is quite different from HBP.  
>Harry changed sides in June after OOP, why and how is described in RDA, so a lot has happened between the former "Savior" and the Dark Lord before this day in early August 1996 when this story<em> Just Talking?<em> begins.  
>Harry was granted a boon by Lord Voldemort for his help with the Horcruxes, see also SIOS I. <em>Apprehension<em> and chapter 7a + 7b of RDA. What will he ask for? Not money, fame or glory, but revenge on ... guess who?  
>They meet to discuss their past, present and future<strong>. <strong>They will not only chat; the Dark Lord will teach the young man a thing or two over the remaining summer and sends him back to Hogwarts with an important mission ... but I don't want to give everything away just now ;-)**  
><strong>

****Shattered Illusions of Safety IV. Just Talking?** **is a part of my** **Additional-Scenes-Series** **written parallel to ** Rise of the Dark Angel** = RDA, covering events only hinted at in the main story.  
>RDA by Mykkila09 and Tonks-is-cool is a novel length WIP HBP AU, with the main pairings HPDM, LV/SS, ex LM/NM, later LM/RL, NL/LL. Betrayed!Harry, Dark!Harry, Light Bashing, "Good" Dark side. Fanfiction dot net /s/5908952/1/Rise_of_the_Dark_Angel **  
><strong>

You should be able to understand what's going on in the SIOS series without reading all of RDA if you found this first by chance ;-) However, if you like this and want to find out what later happens to a certain person, you'll have to read in RDA chapter 11 the last scene (starting with Harry and Draco waiting in Diagon Alley near Gringotts for their target on the 28th of August) because both scenes belong together and I wrote them in one go.

****Rating and Warning:** **because RDA is rated M, I rate SIOS accordingly as T to M, because of Violence, Character Deaths, Language, Sexual Situations or some other adult themes mentioned now and then, that are considered not suitable for kids.

The first scene of **RDA Chapter 11** starts out like the following, please consider this scene the **Prologue **of **Just Talking, SIOS IV.**, ok? It was written by me with valuable input from Mykkila09, of course.

* * *

><p>On the day after the visit to Diagon Alley, and speaking with Pansy and Blaise, Harry decided to speak to the Dark Lord about his boon. After lunch, he went to his bedroom and scribbled a short letter.<p>

_Marvolo,_

_do you have time for me, today or tomorrow? I´d like to speak with you about the favour, please._

_Harry_

He rolled up the parchment and sealed it; then, he tapped it with his wand and cast a simple Parseltongue locking charm on it. Voldemort had suggested establishing this routine for security reasons, regardless if they sent a letter with owl post or Hedwig. If it was routine, a habit, then there was less danger to forget it later when Harry was back at Hogwarts, when it was really necessary to keep their communication private. Finished with this task, he called, "Hedwig." A moment later, the white Phoenix-Who-Hid-As-An-Owl flashed into his bedroom.

"Hedwig, please deliver this letter to Lord Voldemort, but don´t flash into his study, you know he doesn´t like that so much. You can give it to Lucius or one of the house elves as usual. Wait around a bit. Maybe he will give you an answer right away, or he´ll send an owl later."

Hedwig took the letter and was gone in a bright flash. Harry decided to wait a bit in the privacy of his bedroom. Although he had lived in Potter manor nearly all summer, he still enjoyed the fact that it was _his _bedroom, that he finally had a place of his own and what a gorgeous place it was! After his miserable childhood at Privet Drive, he would never take this comfort and feeling of security for granted. Sighing contently, he stretched out on the coverlet of his bed and drifted off into a pleasant daydream about languorously exploring Draco's body.

After ten minutes, the phoenix appeared again, startling Harry out of his pleasurable haze as she landed on the headboard all of a sudden.

"Huh, that was fast, thanks Hedwig," Harry sat up and adjusted himself, before petting her soft feathers.

Hedwig thrilled and dropped a small role of parchment into his hand, with no visible seal or address, which instantly unfurled when he hissed _{Open}._

_Today, four o'clock, MM, back garden terrace._

_LV_

When he was finished, Harry cast an _Incendio_ to burn the letter. Since the meeting wasn't until this afternoon, he still had some free time, so he decided to spend it with his friends. They had had an outdoor training session earlier with Rabastan and Severus, joined by Blaise and Pansy who were impressed, and everyone was outside relaxing; he decided to join them until his meeting. After mentally calling Sesshomaru, who appeared at his side instantly, the young wizard and his familiars walked through the manor to the garden.

~...~

At a quarter to four, Hedwig flashed Harry right inside the tall dark green hedge and wrought iron gates of Malfoy manor. He took a deep breath of the afternoon summer air, it was pleasantly warm here, a bit warmer compared to Potter manor in Wales, but not stifling hot.

He preferred this mode of transport to using the Floo network, because he was out in the fresh air and did not arrive covered in sooth or stumbling out of some fireplace like a drunken imbecile. With practice, he had learned to exit a fireplace somewhat better compared to his second year, that was true, but still he lacked the grace some other wizards showed. Harry had never seen Draco, Lucius or Severus stumble around or fall to the floor when arriving at a fireplace, they always landed with perfect grace and with only a few grains of sooth or even completely clean. When Harry had grumbled about this no doubt age-old pure-blood secret, they always smirked at him, but refused to explain.

Hedwig soared up into the sky to stretch her wings a bit. This part of Wiltshire was beautiful, wide open spaces, and not densely populated, so she could enjoy swooping around an hour, chasing smaller birds and out flying raptors like hawks or falcons just for the fun of flying. He had left Sesshomaru back at Potter Manor with Draco and the others.

Harry walked down the driveway towards the manor house and veered off to the left, walking over the lawn through the fragrant gardens headed to the back of the house and the garden terrace.

He marvelled again at the difference between this garden and Aunt Petunia´s idea of the perfect gardens, where he had slaved countless hours in burning heat or freezing rain to pick weeds or repaint the fence as a child. This manor garden was well kempt too of course, there was also a lawn, flowerbeds, bushes just like at his relatives house. But the Malfoy´s garden was much larger, inter-spaced with well springs, classical statues or little nooks with a convenient bench enclosed by hedges or bushes. They also had evergreen hedges growing in a spiral maze form on one side, not dangerous and sinister looking like the huge, scary maze from the Tri-Wizard Tournament, but peaceful, serene, to gently walk around at leisure or in meditation. Everything looked more natural, more alive here, there was luxuriant flowing growth, and more plant variation compared to Privet Drive.

Suddenly a house-elf popped in front of him, one hand raised towards him.

"Sir, stop. What is sir guest doing here? Sir must speak to master. Manor door is back there," it commanded.

Harry came to an abrupt stop, he hadn´t met this particular house-elf before; it looked rather young. The elf was clad in a nice, crispy white tea towel with the Malfoy crest on its breast; it looked him up and down critically. Harry was amused; the little bugger obviously took his duty seriously to not only serve his family well, but to protect them also.

"Hello, my name is Harry Potter. I have an appointment with your master´s guest today, the Dark Lord, on the garden terrace. I´m keyed into the wards of the manor, so there should not have been an alarm." Harry explained to the elf in a friendly tone.

The elf stared at him for a moment with huge eyes, then bowed low and started to apologize. "Ooooh, sir is Harry Potter sir. Sorry, sir. Welcome to Malfoy manor. I is Belby. I is a new elf. Belby heard of Harry Potter sir. Sorry, sir. Master said he improved wards. Master ordered Belby to watch for spies in hedge or garden. Master told Belby to always greet guests at gate. Belby felt the wards breached, but wards not give normal alarm. Belby was worried. Harry Potter Sir wants to speak to master´s Lord, sir?"

Harry smiled and nodded at the excited and dedicated little elf. At least this one did not seem to have Dobby´s crazy tendencies of Potter hero worship or of punishing itself needlessly. It was good to know that Lucius had improved the security around the manor, not that it had been lacking before, but one could never be too careful nowadays.

"Oh yes Harry Potter sir, go on, this way, master's master is near the roses." Belby pointed him in the right direction, before popping away.

Harry reached the terrace right on time. Coming around the last low hedge bordering the garden path, he noticed Voldemort lounging in a blue wickerwork chair besides a yellow rose bush, looking surprisingly peaceful and relaxed as he read a book. There was no one else present.

Harry coughed before ascending the few stairs to the flagged stone platform to announce his presence and walked closer. With a slight bow, he greeted the Dark Lord, "Good afternoon, Marvolo. How are you?"

Voldemort looked up; closing his book, he banished it back to his suite.

"Harry, right on time; I´m fine, thank you," he acknowledged the young man.

Rising from his seat, the Dark Lord gestured towards the garden. "Come, let´s take a walk and tell me about you. Any unusual reactions?" He inquired while stepping down the stairs. He casually twirled his wand to cast _Muffliato_ and a silencing charm bubble around them, to hide their conversation to any hidden listeners.

Falling easy in stride alongside Voldemort, crossing the path and ambling over the soft carpet of lush green grass that composed the Malfoys lawn, Harry smiled and replied exultantly, "I'm OK. I feel better overall, as if a weight I always carried around has been lifted. My magic seems to be getting stronger; there is more power behind my spells when I cast them as I usually do. I've had to tone it down in training today. And the reading, you know, memorizing information from textbooks – it seems easier, I read faster and remember more compared to the last weeks."

Harry sniggered, "Snape was astonished when he quizzed me this morning about something he had me read yesterday. I didn´t think it would make this much of a difference, but it does. Snape thinks it´s because now there is a part of my magic that is suddenly free, that was always working in the past on containing and shielding it."

Voldemort smirked at Harry´s exuberance and the way the young man kept his secrets confidential, constantly avoiding the 'H.' word, should there be someone listening despite his precautions.

"This pleases me; it's the best possible outcome of our endeavour. What about your scar, did you feel anything the past two days?"

Harry shook his head; he stopped and turned to Voldemort. He pushed his fringe away and beamed up at the older man. "No sir, everything is ok. No pain. The scar stayed like it was after-ah-you know."

Voldemort had turned to Harry and stepped close, to better inspect the famous scar on the young man´s forehead. He slowly raised his right hand and reached out towards the fine silver lightning bolt, which to him looked similar to either the rune Sowilo or in Anglo-Saxon Sigel, the power of the sun, or to Eiwahz, in Anglo-Saxon Yr, the symbol for the Yew tree.

"Tell me how it feels," Voldemort commanded gently.

"Ok," Harry breathed out, tensing slightly in anticipation as emerald orbs locked with the dark brown, crimson-rimmed orbs above him.

Voldemort firmly took hold of Harry´s right shoulder with his left hand and then carefully touched Harry´s scar with the fingertip of his right index finger. Nothing happened; the contact felt perfectly normal, just like the warm skin of an attractive young man. He could feel the power thrumming in Harry, but there was no negative reaction. No spark or shock, no strange tingling. He quirked an eye-brow and moved his hand over Harry's forehead through the dark hair to the back of his head, holding the young man in a controlling—but not painful—grip for a moment. Harry's eyes widened in reaction to the dominating gesture; he felt no shock or pain, only Voldemort's magic—delicious, alluring, dark power—but he refused to give in to the attraction and to lean into the touch.

"All right?" Voldemort questioned.

"Yeah, I´m ok," Harry flushed in slight embarrassment. "No throbbing or stinging, no headaches or migraines anymore. And thank Merlin I feel more normal around you sir. I-I don´t completely lose my head anymore this close to you. Thanks for convincing me to do it."

_{You're welcome. What about __ssspeaking __Parsssel__, have you tried?}_ The elder wizard hissed suddenly, while releasing the younger and resuming their walk through the garden heading towards the spiral hedge maze.

Harry slipped his hands into his pockets as he walked beside Voldemort; his face lit up again as another huge smile came on his face. Turning to Voldemort, he started hissing teasingly_, {__Yesss__, of __courssse__! I __mussst __sstill__ be __a__ ssspeaker__ to help to teach Nagini´s __sssnaklingsss__ the __waysss__ of the world. Can´t leave it all to the elder generation, after all. They have to learn all about __pranksss__ too, not only about __ssscaring__ people to death.}_

Voldemort actually laughed at Harry´s words; he too felt better today—rested and calmer—despite his very vivid dreams full of snapshots from Harry's past, no doubt a reaction to the soul union.

After strolling through the maze in companionable silence for a few minutes, turning to the correct path out of habit, Voldemort asked, "So, tell me, what you have decided to ask from me? I must admit, I´m quite curious what you will chose. Money, fame and power you have in abundance; we have already discussed the people you care about, so I´m sure you won´t ask anything like that, as most other followers would, isn´t it so?"

Harry looked over at the Dark Lord, gouging his reaction and nodded. "You'd be right Marvolo; there is something I´d really like to do. I want to kidnap, torture and kill somebody. But the person it concerns is working at the Ministry. She was a senior Undersecretary to Fudge, but I don't know if she lost this position when Fudge was sacked. I don´t know what her current position is or if this witch is in any way connected to your plans, if she is valuable or expendable in your estimation."

"Hmm, and who might that be?" asked Voldemort, turning around another bend in the patch between the tall evergreen hedges, which opened up to a small circular area. They had reached the middle of the spiral maze. An old, gnarled, huge evergreen tree stood in the middle, like the centre of the universe.

Harry stopped and faced him with a serious, angry expression. "I want to take revenge on Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge. I want to torture and kill her as payback for all the pain that she caused me." He spoke in a harsh, cold voice, "I want her to know it´s me, Potter, the former Golden Boy, before she dies. And I want to involve the werewolves, ripping her to shreds alive, leaving only scraps for the crows."

Voldemort had also stopped and raised both finely sculptured black eye-brows at the complete change of attitude. A few minutes ago, the younger wizard had been so cheerful and happy. Now, Harry looked and sounded as if he really wanted to rip someone apart.

Intrigued, the Dark Lord enquired, "Explain," while crossing his arms in front of his chest and leaning his back against the large, old yew tree growing in the middle of the maze. He could feel the elemental power of the earth thrumming through it and intermingling with his own, dark magic. This was a special place of power; the Malfoy ancestors had created this maze around the ancient yew for a reason.

To Voldemort, yew trees had been always special, his interest starting when he bought his yew wand as an eleven year old from Ollivander's. At Hogwarts, he learned in Herbology and Potions, that yew is associated with immortality, renewal, regeneration, everlasting life, rebirth, transformation, access to the Otherworld and our ancestors and was a symbol of the old magic. The Yew is sacred to Hecate, and the Crone aspect of the Triple Goddess; both are guardians of the Underworld, death and the afterlife. Yew trees in Britain were ancient, up to 4000 years, often found around blind springs, planted as Druid groves, where later muggle churches were built.

The small evergreen leaves are dark green, even in the middle of the coldest, bitter winter, which is a symbol of life, but they were deadly poisonous at the same time. The entire tree is poisonous - wood, bark, needles and seed. They are used in several dark potions, like in abortion potion or an extremely potent poison Severus had created for him during the first war called _Ibidem__Nex_, one drop of instant death. The only part which isn´t poisonous is the bright red, fleshy part of the seed that birds could eat, thereby giving them a chance at life during winter, the time of darkness and death. Even muggles revered Yew for these same reasons as wizard kind throughout the northern world.

Harry paced around the little circular space like an angry panther, his magic swirling around him in a threatening way, while he growled out, "I _hate_ Umbridge. She´s had it out for me all right, she tormented me every way she could. It started last summer. I was still shaken from the trials of the bloody Tri-Wizard tournament and your fucking resurrection party in the graveyard, again stuck at my shitty muggle relatives, without any contact to the wizarding world." Harry sneered, "On orders of Dumbledore of course, for my own fucking good."

Voldemort frowned while watching Harry stalk around him. He was surprised by Harry's language and realized that the young man must be incredibly angry for a multitude of reasons to lose his composure like that in his presence. He disliked foul language, it was uncouth, but for now, he would wait and listen.

"To top that hellish summer off, two bloody Dementors attacked me and my cousin one evening, completely out of the blue."

"What?" exclaimed Voldemort standing up straight at once. This was disturbing. Why hadn't he known this before?

"Yes, two bloody Dementors," repeated Harry ardently, holding up two fingers of his right hand while his left was clenched into a fist. "They cornered us in a narrow alleyway not far from Privet Drive and nearly sucked my soul out, it was horrible…dreadful. I barely managed to fend them off with my _Patronus_, which resulted in a letter from the fucking Ministry, telling me I was expelled from Hogwarts for performing underage magic and that my wand would be snapped in a few minutes. Can you believe it? I escaped a fate worse than death by defending myself with a charm many adult wizards cannot properly cast. I also heroically rescued my worthless Muggle cousin along the way, and the British Ministry of Magic wanted to kick me out of the Wizarding World? Fucking Ministry. Last May I learned that this was all Umbitch's doing, which of course I didn´t know back then."

Harry´s fury was rising; all that frustration, fear, confusion, and outrage from the past summer came boiling up again. His black hair and clothes moved as if in an invisible wind. Voldemort watched him prowl around him and relished in the darkness pouring of the young man. It was like watching as a volcano erupted; all that rage and hate the boy had held back for so long came pouring out.

Harry´s power was like the best old red wine, caressing his senses. Salazar, this boy—no young man—was truly worthy of his attention, so powerful and glorious in his wrath. Harry would be a terrible weapon against his foes. Dumbledore was such a fool; well, the Light´s loss was the dark sides gain. He, Voldemort, would only have to direct this weapon skilfully – and take care to ensure it stayed loyal to _him_.

Which wasn't too difficult. As starved for affection, friendly touch and reassurance as Harry was from his deprived and neglected childhood and the past years at Hogwarts, a bit of positive attention, understanding and openness did wonders to deepen their bond, that thankfully had not suffered from the very few times he had had to resort to doling out pain as a punishment so far. It was exhilarating to witness that _the _Harry Potter came to the Dark side and submitted to him of his own free will, as opposed to being forced and tortured into compliance; an idea that he had briefly entertained after their encounter in the graveyard. That the cunning, stubborn and powerful young dark wizard was most eager to learn from, to fight with him and not against him anymore was beyond fortunate. Before this summer, he never would have believed such a development was possible.

Last summer, Voldemort had heard of course from Lucius and Yaxley that Harry Potter was in trouble for performing underage magic, but he had had absolutely no idea of the incredible danger the young man had been in. To think, that this idiotic ministry sycophant had recklessly endangered _his_ Harry, _his_ Horcrux! Regardless of what more Harry would reveal, the Undersecretary´s fate was already sealed.

Lucius had mentioned the woman a few times when reporting about Fudge and his underlings. She was a nasty piece of work; sadistic, ruthless, ambitious and cunning, that fit in well with his Death Eaters—she didn't know of course that Lucius was one—nevertheless, any potential value this woman had as a Dark side supporter was completely negated by her crimes against the boy. If Harry would not go after her – which he wanted to – Voldemort himself would have ordered her capture and enjoy killing her.

Harry´s angry voice snapped him out of his musings. "Some more letters from Dumbledore and other people followed one after the other during the next half hour. Another letter from the Ministry changed the immediate expulsion threat to a hearing about underage magic in August, where my fate would be decided. But the day of the trial, Lucius was there in the Ministry. I got a glimpse of him in the hallway outside the courtroom talking to Minister Fudge, so he must have told you?"

Voldemort was ready to speak, but it seemed as if Harry didn't really need his answer, as he rushed to recap the rest of that bizarre evening in Surrey.

"My aunt and uncle of course believed that I had somehow hexed their precious son and were furious at me for all those freaky owls that invaded their perfect muggle kitchen," Harry sneered. "Didn´t get any chocolate, in case you were wondering. They sent me to my room and locked me in, without food which of course was their usual punishment.

"Ah, and as the icing on the cake," Harry sneered, "I found out that evening that our neighbour, old batty Mrs. Figg was no muggle, but a squib and a spy for Dumbledore. He had asked her to have an eye on me! Unbelievable, this man. She wasn´t allowed to tell me about the wizarding world when I was a kid. She either never noticed the neglect and abuse going on at number four, or Dumbledore didn´t believe her. Or he believed her, but left me at the Dursleys nevertheless, for the greater good, that bastard!"

Harry was quivering in remembered hate and rage. He could not stand still, but continued to circle around the large evergreen tree and watched Voldemort out of the corner of his eyes. The man´s face wore a dark scowl, the lips pressed together. Was he angry with Harry or did he sympathize with him and feel emphatic anger at Umbridge, the Ministry, Dumbledore and the Dursleys?

"And this was just the start of the trouble Umbitch caused me in fifth year. As you know, she was appointed by Fudge himself to Hogwarts as the new DADA teacher and so called High Inquisitor. She gave me endless detentions, forced me to write hours on end with a cursed blood quill, until the message sunk in, as she called it."

Harry stepped close to the elder wizard and held his hand up. "Here, look, I removed the glamour. How much did you know about all of this, Marvolo?"

Voldemort´s hand shot out quick as a viper to grab Harry's wrist. He carefully inspected the back of Harry´s right hand. There, he found faded scars, letters etched deeply into the skin; _I must not tell lies. _Voldemort scowled, locking fierce eyes with the young man.

"Then don´t tell lies Harry, tell me everything. I will not protest any punishment this woman suffers at your hand. Believe me, if I had known about this, I would have tortured and killed her myself!" Voldemort stated. "Umbridge was always a supporter of the Dark Side, not a Death Eater of course, but she could have been useful in the Ministry. Nevertheless, she has forfeited the right to live."

Voldemort's eyes glowed. _{Nobody __touchesss__ what __isss__ mine}_ he hissed, completely incensed, as he tightened his grip possessively and tugged Harry closer with his left hand on the small of Harry's back. Harry shuddered and gasped.

"I didn´t know how bad your living conditions were or what happened to you last summer or during fifth year," Voldemort continued, "Lucius and Yaxley only overheard that you had performed underage magic and got an expulsion hearing for it, but not what exactly you did or why you did magic. Umbridge must have known you were all alone in the muggle world if she got to your relatives' address. That was attempted murder, nothing else. Most adult wizards can't defend themselves against Dementors."

Hugging the young wizard possessively to his chest, Voldemort snarled out, _{__Ssshe__ will pay} _all the while glaring daggers over Harry's shoulder, his eyes shining more red than dark brown.

Harry relished in the fierce embrace, the feeling of dark power curling and unfurling over him and leaned his head for a moment on Voldemort's shoulder. Nodding with a nasty teeth baring grin, he viciously hissed his answer. _{__Yesss__, __ssshe__ will.}_

He knew Voldemort's vice like grip would leave a bruise on his wrist—it hurt quite a bit—and he felt a tad uncomfortable pressed this closely to the older man, to any other man that wasn't Draco, but he tolerated Voldemort's possessiveness because it felt absolutely fantastic to be so valued and protected. Here was living proof again that he _mattered_, that someone _cared_, that he wasn't worthless like his relatives had always told him. Harry felt better, seeing that the Dark Lord shared his sentiments against the toad. What would he have given last year to have an adult that believed him and took action against that vile woman!

It was mind boggling that one letter of complaint to Voldemort of all people would have ended Umbridge's reign at Hogwarts for the simple reason that last year, the Dark Lord had considered Harry as his to hurt and kill—but still, as his—and under his protection against all other threats.

Voldemort loosened his grip again, studying the back of Harry's hand for a moment longer before asking, "I wonder, did she treat other students the same as you, or were you singled out? Severus never mentioned anything like what you said. He hates Umbridge as she was a nuisance and a menace, but he never reported of her harming students with a blood quill. That´s torture to write hours with one until it scars like this."

Harry answered with a glare and wrenched his hand lose, to take up his agitated pacing around the circular maze centre again. "No. Severus wouldn't know, at least I don't think so. No Slytherin children suffered under her regiment at Hogwarts in the last school year, because none of them was so foolish as to provoke her as I did. I was just so angry; I lost control over my mask and because of that, I couldn't keep my mouth shut. I knew you were not a figment of my overactive imagination. She gave blood quill detentions to several of the Gryffs, very few Claws and some Puffs who believed my claims that you were back.

"Why was it not reported?" Voldemort wondered. "How is it no teacher knew of it? Did no student complain?"

"I was the first one she used it on." Harry recounted, his insides burning with anger. "After that detention was over, I went directly to McGonagall. When I tried to tell her what happened, she snapped at me to keep my head down and not to get into any more trouble. She didn't even let me tell her how the detention actually was and what it was exactly that Umbitch was using on me, a student."

He sighed and shook his head. "When she brushed me off without actually hearing what I had to say, I believed that the other teachers wouldn't listen to my complaints either. And when the other students realized that my own Head of House wasn't willing to listen to me, they decided not to say anything. After all, if the Gryffindor Golden Boy, Dumbledore's favourite student for the past four years, couldn't get his own Head of House to believe him, then what chance did they have?"

"I never knew," Voldemort murmured as his dark eyes narrowed. "To think that the woman would use such a barbaric tool on students to hurt them and that Fudge, incompetent fool that he is, allowed it to happen..."

"Oh, that was not everything that happened," continued Harry his angry tirade. "On the day of the History of Magic exam, after you send me that fucking vision about Sirius, Umbitch wanted to use Veritaserum on me and was this close," Harry lifted his hand and indicated a minimal space between his thumb and index finger, "to use Cruciatus on me, a student. She would have, if Granger and Snape hadn´t intervened. Can you believe that? Bugger, Granger and Snape saved me, again; Severus…my saviour, my hero." Harry grinned, his fury burned out mostly before his face and voice turned resigned and sad.

"You know what the worst of it is? Because Umbridge controlled all the mail and had blocked all the fireplaces at Hogwarts, I couldn't contact Sirius anymore for months. After you sent me that bloody vision, I assumed him to be in mortal danger, but Granger insisted it could be a fake. I wanted to check up on Sirius before jumping to conclusion, that's why I broke into Umbridge's office to try and use her Floo. I did manage a short Floo Net connection to Headquarters and spoke briefly to Kreacher, the old house-elf. He said Sirius was out. Later that night, after Sirius was dead, I learned that that wasn't true, but earlier when it mattered, I couldn't contact Grimmauld Place again, because Umbridge barged into her office.

"What followed was her interrogation of me; her attempts to use _Veritaserum_ and Cruciatus. Granger and I lured her into the Forbidden Forest, where we then escaped and rode on Thestrals to London together with the others. So, I put a large part of Sirius' death on her doorstep. By the way, I haven't forgiven you for this; I can't, although I completely understand why you tried to lure me there. I know you tried to get the prophecy by other means first; for example, I had one vision of Rockwood reporting to you before the other one around Christmas when Nagini attacked Arthur Weasley."

Voldemort nodded his head. Well, he had to believe what Harry told him. He could read the truth in his eyes. And now they had arrived at a most unpleasant topic, again. Better not dwell on that vision and the debacle at the Ministry. Although, it had led to a few positive outcomes in the end; his possession of Harry, the revelation of the prophecy and their new alliance, rescuing his Horcruxes, the regaining of his sanity and his new passionate relationship with Severus.

His mind went over all the information he was just given and knew he would enjoy seeing Harry take revenge, especially considering Umbridge had almost cost him his Horcrux. She had dared to hurt what was his, which was inexcusable. He used to torture and kill people for far less offence.

And, there was of course the issue of the oppressive anti-werewolf regulations this senior Undersecretary was responsible for. Fenrir had ranted and raved about that often enough, and Harry´s god-fatherly friend, Remus Lupin was affected too of course. The law from 1993 made it nearly impossible for known werewolves to get or hold a decent job in the Wizarding world. That explained Harry´s wish to include the werewolves in his revenge on Umbridge.

"Very well then," Voldemort concluded, looking down at the younger wizard. "The favour is granted; Dolores Umbridge is yours. I shall have the necessary information collected so you know when best to abduct her. You should plan her punishment and execution together with Fenrir and Remus. This would be the perfect occasion for us to meet the pack leaders and to show them that I am sincere in my wish to end the repression of the werewolves."

"Thank you Marvolo. Yes, I will speak with them as soon as they are back. If possible, I want to go through with it on the night of the next full moon, which would be the twenty-eighth." Harry smiled darkly, happy that he was finally getting revenge on the toad that had made his life hell.

Voldemort saw the smile and he relished in the malice in it. _'Yes, Albus Dumbledore should have been more careful with the Saviour. His loss is my gain.' _

"Alright Harry, I'll keep that evening free of any other commitments or meetings," Voldemort said and he gestured for Harry to continue walking with him. The two walked in comfortable silence for a bit before Voldemort broke it. "Harry, there is something I'd like to speak with you about."

"Ok," Harry nodded. "What is it you want to talk about Marvolo?"

"Albus Dumbledore," Voldemort snarled.

~ TBC ~


	2. Just talking

**~~*~~ Shattered Illusions of Safety IV. ~~*~~**

**by Tonks-is-cool**

**- Rise of the Dark Angel - Additional Scenes -**

**~*~ ****Just Talking ... ****~*~ **

_Voldemort saw the smile and he relished in the malice in it. 'Yes, Albus Dumbledore should have been more careful with the Saviour. His loss is my gain.'_

_"Alright Harry, I'll keep that evening free of any other commitments or meetings," Voldemort said and he gestured for Harry to continue walking with him. The two walked in comfortable silence for a bit before Voldemort broke it. "Harry, there is something I'd like to speak with you about."_

_"Ok," Harry nodded. "What is it you want to talk about Marvolo?"_

_"Albus Dumbledore," Voldemort snarled._

~...~

Imagining Dumbledore´s incredulous expression when he realized that he had lost his weapon,had reminded Voldemort of the last discussion with Harry and Severus about the prophesy and the Horcruxes. He guided the younger wizard on to a different path through the evergreen hedge maze, lengthening his stride and moving through the intertwining spiral paths with unerring accuracy, avoiding the dead ends, but taking a longer way around. For good measure, he recast the scrambling and silencing spells around both of them.

"The Headmaster? What did he do now?" replied Harry, hurrying to keep up, while wondering how often the dark wizard must have traversed this maze while contemplating some problem or other to know his way about so well.

"Nothing new as far as I´m aware. Last time we spoke, you asked a lot of questions, and I didn´t answer all of them, because we focused on more important aspects of our connection."

"Oh. Umm, yeah, I remember. Do you think he knows about – about your safeguards and about me?"

Harry noticed Voldemort´s shoulder stiffened, before he huffed, "Well, I believe he at least suspects, and probably knows much more than he should. After you told me about the Chamber of Secrets, I went to check on the ring and Albus came not five minutes later."

Harry gaped at him. "What? How in the world did that happen?"

"Indeed, what a coincidence," mused Voldemort. "I have no idea how he discovered that this old cottage was a special place to me. But I watched him walk directly toward this hiding place. Not as if he was searching for the location, but as if he already knew the way. Only thanks to you I was there on time."

Harry was appropriately taken aback and awed, imagining a battle like in the atrium of the Ministry when the two wizards met. "And, did you fight him? Did you injure him? Your anger that afternoon was terrible. My head felt as if a goblin axe split it open."

Voldemort snorted, looking annoyed. "No. I managed to retrieve the ring while Albus tried to break down my wards. I only taunted him and Apparated away. "

"Oh?" Harry raised an astonished eyebrow. "You didn´t duel at all?"

He quickly glanced up at Voldemort´s face to gauge his reaction. He didn´t want to imply that Voldemort was a coward – that would not go over well. It was ok to be careful and not to act like a brave, but hot-headed, foolish Gryffindor. Voldemort´s personal skill and courage in battle was legendary among the Death Eaters. They had regaled the teens at Potter manor with stories how the Dark Lord had often fought with several Aurors and Order members at once in the first war and usually killed most of them.

The dark wizard gnashed his teeth for a moment, anger rising up at the memory. "How dare he snoop around on my property!" he snarled.

He dearly wanted to curse somebody into next week, preferably the old meddler of too many given names and titles, but lacked a suitable target apart from Harry, so he whipped out his wand to blast and burn a large hole through the nearest hedges. In the back of his mind, he acknowledged this act as childish and that it was strange to think about his behaviour at all. A year ago he would have simply cursed the nearest person and enjoyed their screams.

Harry instinctively stepped back and raised a strong shield; he could feel Voldemort´s Dark magic swirling around him and cast another wary glance at the dangerous wizard, hoping that he would continue to keep his temper in check.

"No, we didn´t duel, nothing flashy like at the Ministry," Voldemort growled out in answer to the younger man´s question. "I just wanted to get away and check on the locket as fast as possible. Who knows what might have happened otherwise."

Harry dropped his shield again, before he commented, "Hm, yes, that surely must have confused him. Maybe it will be to your advantage if he underestimates you, if he thinks you are so afraid of him after the last confrontation?"

Voldemort snarled and shot of another vicious blast at a couple of still smouldering bushes.

"Not that I think you are!" Harry quickly added. After waiting a few heartbeats for another reaction, he asked, "As Hogwarts Headmaster Dumbledore must have a lot of experience with wards. Do you think he would have succeeded if you had not been there personally to stop him?"

"I really don´t know." Voldemort shook his head and scowled at the glowing and crumbling remains of the blackened hedges. He did feel a bit sorry for the damage, after all he liked this hedge maze very much; sauntering through it helped him to figure out his plans and strategies.

Suddenly a houself appeared with a crack on the path besides them. Its large eyes took in the devastation and it let out a squeal of fright and distress. "Oh nnooooo, not master´s beloved maze! Sirs mustn't do that! Master´s guests are bad!"

"Hello Belby," Harry greeted the little elf. "Sorry for the trouble." He bit his lip to keep from laughing at the look on Voldemort´s face at being scolded by the small house elf. Harry worried for Belby´s health.

When the taller man raised his wand again, the little elf shrieked in fright and jumped behind Harry for cover, but the dark wizard only waved the wand at the remains of the burned hedges and blasted garden paths and a moment later, everything was arranging itself back together, the fire extinguished.

Belby peeked out behind Harry cautiously. Seeing that the destruction was mostly repaired, he squeaked, "Thank you sir, master Lord," and popped away quickly before the other wizard could curse him instead.

Huffing, Voldemort tapped his wand against his right leg and resumed a casual walk. Harry was quick to follow and continue the conversation, as if nothing had happened, so he asked, "About the wards, what kinds of wards are there to give the old man so much trouble?"

"The wards around that safe house are Parselmagic wards with Parseltongue safe words," the Dark Lord explained. "They are anchored to the ground around the building through a triple life blood sacrifice. Inside the house are more quite vicious protections. You will learn about such application of Dark Arts in the future."

"Hm, so if they are Parselmagic, I suppose only another Parseltongue can pass them? Why are you so worried that the headmaster probably can breach them?"

Voldemort sighted and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Harry, I believed for about 50 years that nobody besides me could get through. However, I also believed for decades that nobody besides me knew certain information and that my safeguards were absolutely secure. For a long time, I was untouchable, invincible; the most feared Dark Lord ever. Well, it turns out I am vulnerable; somehow that old, sly fox knows about the shack. My locket was stolen years ago despite best protections. It vexes me. Arrgh," he snarled in his anger, his wand emitted a shower of bright green sparks, although he held back on hexing anything or anyone.

Harry decided a bit of sarcastic flattery would be the best to calm the waves, although he kept the incantation for a strong shield in the forefront of his mind.

Turning around he quickly walked backwards, grinning he sketched a bow and opened his arms in a theatrical gesture, declaring, "Well my Lord, you are still the most feared Dark Lord ever and very near invincible, now that I am on your side. All wizards and witches apart from Dumbledore call you You-Know-Who and flinch when they hear your name. The Dark Mark in the sky causes mass panic. That´s pretty impressive Marvolo. Nobody flinches anymore if they hear someone say 'Grindelwald'."

His antics were successful; the Dark Lord chuckled, amused by the young wizard´s obvious diversion tactic and slipped his wand back into his poket, so he added, "Do you want to visit Potter manor and duel me later, you know, as a practice duel?"

"You offer yourself as a convenient target for my ire? Brave, Harry, very brave." Voldemort smirked again, which Harry took as a good sign that he wasn´t overly angry anymore, so he walked again at his side, asking, "Now I´m curious, what did Dumbledore try? How close did he get to that safe house?"

"Albus was very close, right in front of the house, about 20 feet away from the door," Voldemort recounted, grinning gleefully. "I watched him through the window. He was throwing all kinds of detection spells at the wards, to no avail other than determining exactly where the perimeter was. But he could not cross it. It seems that he could neither see the house nor determine whether another wizard was inside or not; because he did not give any indication that he knew that I was there. At least, I assume he would have acted more careful, for example, that he would have cast Protego Horribilis in advance as a precaution to fend off a possible attack. Don´t you think so?"

Harry nodded. "Yes, I suppose so. Or, cunning fox as you say he is, he acted this way on purpose? Who knows, he often acts like he is a harmless, batty old grandfather to fool people into trusting him. What did he do next?"

"Albus tried in vain to open a gateway by offering his blood. Only when I went outside and crossed the wards of to the side in the shadow of a tree did he notice that somebody was there. He reacted at once by throwing up that shield, although he still could not see me."

Voldemort winked at Harry. "I´d like to think it went that well thanks to my own brilliance and Salazar´s magnificent Parselmagic wards, but I acknowledge you might have helped with the 'The Power the Dark Lord knows not', your incredible luck on that day. "

"Oh, ehm, I don´t know about that." Harry blushed, hiding his face by shaking his longish dark hair in front of his eyes, before giving in to his curiosity and the prospect of leaning something from Voldemort he asked, "What about the blood? Is that always necessary to offer ones blood to cross such Dark Arts protection wards?"

"Not always. But quite often your blood, or the blood or the life force of a suitable sacrifice is required to cross such wards or to cast them. It depends on the kind of ward, the strength and the size of the area that you want to protect," lectured the dark wizard, pleased to share his knowledge with the younger wizard.

"Ok, but – you said that the wards around this safe house did not require blood to pass it, so another ward at another place does?" Harry inquired.

"Yes, exactly, where the locket was hidden, just such a ward exists that requires a small amount of freshly spilled blood to open for anyone besides me."

"Oh!" Harry exclaimed. "And when you visited this other place, you discovered that somebody had switched your locket for the one of Regulus. No wonder you were so pissed off. Was it Dumbledore?"

"No, he wasn´t. At first I believed that he had found this place, but after some investigation, I am very sure he didn´t - yet. It was actually Regulus himself, because I discovered his corpse. He betrayed me and paid with a rather horrible death," explained Voldemort with a dark scowl.

Harry felt rather queasy imaging what kind of death someone like Voldemort would call horrible.

After a moment of contemplation, the dark wizard shook his head in regret. "Such a shame, he was a very promising young wizard; dedicated to the cause, enthusiastic to fight for freedom of the Dark families and the purification of the wizarding world. Regulus was actually your age when he asked to join my followers. I´m somewhat at a loss why he acted the way he did. Did Sirius ever tell you about his brother?"

Harry uneasily carded his fingers through his black hair before replying, "Well, yes he did, but I don´t know much. Sirius told me he had a younger brother. He described Regulus as his parents' favourite because he accepted their ideas about blood purity and joined the Death Eaters very young. Sirius´s parents and Regulus thought you had the right idea about getting rid of Muggle-borns and having pure-bloods in charge. Sirius believed that either you had murdered Regulus personally or ordered someone else to murder him, because Regulus panicked later about what he was being asked to do in your service and tried to get out."

"Hmmm, well, I remember rumours among my Death Eaters that I killed him for betrayal," Voldemort mused. "I didn´t murder him, but I would have, if I´d caught him, because Regulus stole my locket and exchanged it for his, intending to destroy my safeguard. I´ve no idea how he discovered it or how he managed to find the hiding place and it´s quite a mystery how the locket eventually ended up in Grimmauld Place. Nevertheless, I found his corpse and a short letter from him; he definitely was killed by the protections around the locket."

They walked on in silence after that for a while. Harry was sad about whatever had happened. He´d loved to get to know a younger brother of Sirius, which reminded him again, of how much he missed his godfather. However, he realized again that – if Sirius were still alive – the situation would be much more complicated.

If Sirius hadn´t died in the Ministry, would Dumbledore have told him about the prophesy on that night like he did? Or would Harry have found out at least some information about this most important secret from Sirius, Severus or other Order members after the battle and thereafter confronted Dumbledore? He remembered that Lucius had talked about it, when they stood in the Hall of Prophesy, that this prophesy was _the_ reason for the Dark Lord coming after Harry in the first place.

Would he have turned to the Dark as quickly as he did at the beginning of summer? Harry thought so, because the main fact remained that because of Dumbledore´s ignoring him and deliberately keeping back of information, Harry had endangered himself, his friends and Sirius needlessly. Harry might have overheard his traitorous friends just the same on the train, regardless of what had happened at the Ministry. That had been the final revelation that confirmed his decision to stop wearing the mask of the Gryffindor Golden Boy.

If he had written to Snape and switched sides like he did now, he would have had to hide the truth from Sirius at least for a while. What about Gringotts, the will readings, uncovering Dumbledore´s manipulation, gaining emancipation and access to Potter Manor – all that had been so important to turn this summer into the best one he had ever experienced in his short life.

Would Sirius have told Harry to his face what he revealed in the will? They both would have had to find a place and time to talk in private, undisturbed. The fact that Dumbledore had served the Potters on a silver platter to Voldemort and afterward kept Sirius imprisoned in Azkaban on purpose, to keep him away from Harry, was a giant betrayal of trust. Would that have been enough to sway Sirius´ loyalty to the dark the same as Harry´s? Or would he have opted for staying neutral?

How to explain Harry´s changed relationships with the Slytherins to Sirius? Would the old Marauder have accepted Draco Malfoy as his lover? Or Harry´s true alliance and new close relationship with Severus Snape and Lord Voldemort? That Neville Longbottom was the son of his hated cousin Bellatrix LeStrange would have shocked Sirius. And what about his friendship with Remus? How would Sirius have reacted after Remus accepted his Dark side, embraced his inner wolf and joined Fenrir Greyback´s pack?

The 'What if' scenarios went on and on, so Harry shook his head, raked his hands through his black tresses and pushed everything to the back of his mind. He loved his new look, new life, new love and new perspectives, although he missed his godfather keenly. The eggs were laid, he´d have to wait and see how many little dragons or snakes hatched.

~...~

TBC


	3. The Room of Hidden Things

**~~*~~ Shattered Illusions of Safety IV. ~~*~~**

**by Tonks-is-cool**

**- Rise of the Dark Angel - Additional Scenes -**

**~*~ Just Talking, Ravenclaw´s Diadem and the Room of Hidden Things ~*~ **

~...~

Harry didn´t know it, but Voldemort´s thoughts went in a similar direction, contemplating several 'What if' scenarios. Finally, looking over at Harry and noticing that he had the attention of the younger wizard again, he spoke, "Now Harry, I already told you that there is another hiding place at Hogwarts. You will check on it when you have returned to the castle come September. Do you know of the Room of Hidden Things?"

"No sir," Harry said, "but – do you mean the Room of Requirement?"

"Room of Requirement? What a promising name." Voldemort was intrigued, so he asked, "Why do you call it like that and where is this room?"

"This secret room can take on whatever form one needs," answered the younger wizard promptly. "It is on the seventh floor and has a hidden entrance opposite this tapestry with Barnabas the Barmy trying to teach those trolls ballet. Do you know where I mean? The way to open the room is to walk past it three times concentrating on what you need, and the door will appear."

Voldemort had paled drastically during Harry´s description, now he abruptly stopped walking and spun around to face him. He felt the same fear as on that day he stood in the Gaunt shack and his Inferi cave. Another Horcrux was endangered. It was the same place all right, seventh floor corridor, walking three times back and forth.

He repressed the urge to lash out at the younger wizard – this was really not Harry´s fault – so he unclenched his hand which had whisked out his wand automatically, twirling it around between his fingers, which earned him uneasy glances and a wary stance from the boy.

With a short cough to clear his suddenly constricted throat he found his voice again, asking urgently, "Elaborate 'whatever form one needs'?"

Harry noticed right away that Voldemort was – again - terribly upset and thanked his lucky stars that they had successfully removed the Horcrux soul part. He was sure otherwise, he would have suffered several splitting headaches today and maybe he would be again trashing around on the garden path, screaming from Crucio because the powerful dark wizard had lost his temper as quickly he used to.

"The Room of Requirement or Come and Go Room is a secret room that only appears when a person is in great need of it," he hurried to explain.

"If you only vaguely wish to let´s say lounge around on a couch during a free period, nothing happens. The room transforms itself into whatever the witch or wizard needs it to be at that moment in time, although there are some limitations. For example, it cannot create food. Last year, I got a tip from Dobby, a house elf, how to find it. All the house elves know of it, Filch too according to Dobby, but for him it only held cleaning supplies. For Fred and George it became a broom cupboard to hide in from Filch some years back," smirked Harry.

"Dumbledore once needed a bathroom and he found a room with chamber pots, but he could not find it again later. We used it for the DA set up as a large classroom for duelling and defence, with cushions, targets, a spy glass, and a collection of books."

He gasped for breath after rushing through the explanation, hoping he hadn´t angered Voldemort further.

Voldemort nodded and tried to relax again, despite feeling thrown off balance – which had ignited his temper in a flare of anger at himself and the world.

Once more, he had been blind to something very important because of his arrogance until Harry provided new information. He had always believed to be the only person in recent history that had discovered the Room of Hidden Things, because no other student or later other alumni ever mentioned it. What could he have done with such a Room of Requirement during his time at Hogwarts, it would have been very handy. It was obviously a well known secret, but most people stumbled over it by accident and did not understand how to open a specific room the second time.

Now he was concerned about Ravenclaw´s diadem, was it still safe? The Room of Hidden Things had been stuffed full of all kinds of broken furniture, thousands of wonderful old books, rusty weapons, suits of armour, magical artefacts, skeletons of strange animals – of course, all this was stuff that either a student or perhaps the house elves had disposed of over the centuries. So it was reasonable to assume that some other students or perhaps even teachers had discovered this room in the past 39 years, if they were in urgent need to get rid of something. Hopefully whoever had discovered the room acted in panic, rushing into the room, leaving their things and rushing out again and did not start snooping amongst the treasure trove like he had as a student.

"Thank you Harry, again you prove yourself very valuable," he praised the younger wizard and resumed walking through the maze. Harry smiled relieved and matched his movement and stride effortlessly with the grace of a seeker.

Voldemort pondered that frequent positive reinforcement worked so much better on Harry than trying to control the young wizard through promises of money and power or the threat of pain and death like he did with other people, because on the one hand the boy didn´t want any more fame or material things and on the other Harry had an incredible high pain tolerance and perseverance due to his harsh childhood and manifold adventures and accidents, coupled with hitherto largely untapped magical power. He decided to elaborate and provide Harry with more information, doing the exact opposite of what Albus would do, to further Harry´s trust in him as his mentor.

"So you found the same room, but used it in a completely different way. For me, it became the Room of Hidden Things. I had great need to find a secure place for one of my safeguards. It looks like a small crown, a tiara or diadem, old and tarnished, which has the phrase _W__it beyond measure is man's greatest treasure_ engraved upon it," explained Voldemort.

Harry nodded, "OK. How will I find it?""

"Go into the room and search for it," he ordered. "I´m not sure how the magic of the room influences the items and the people in it over time, but it should be possible for you to use the point me spell to find it. The name is Ravenclaw´s diadem. _Accio_ though will not work. I protected the diadem against summoning, but I believe you will be able to recognize the feeling of my magic if you get close, because you are so familiar with the diary, ring and locket. When you find the tiara, I think it´s safe for you to touch it for a short while; but best wrap it into a piece of cloth. Do not try to set it upon your head, I´m not sure what would happen. It is a powerful and ancient magical artefact, perhaps you have read about it in Hogwarts, a History?"

Harry looked bemused and shook his head. "Don´t worry, I wouldn´t do that, and no, I haven´t read that book ten times cover to cover like Granger."

Voldemort chuckled, "Well, some people would be very tempted to try it on, believe me. That tiara or diadem is famous, Rowena Ravenclaw´s lost diadem, a founder´s artefact of immeasurable importance and value. It was said to enhance the wisdom of the wearer."

Harry looked suitably impressed, although he couldn´t care less. So what? He had already drawn Godric´s sword out of the Sorting Hat, which at least was a proper sharp weapon. He was not interested in an old tarnished headdress of a founder.

Voldemort raised his left hand and showed Harry the Gaunt heirloom ring with the black stone.

"Do not ever try to put this ring on without my explicit permission," he cautioned him. "It carries a very dangerous, deadly curse against potential enemies. This ring is an ancient family heirloom. I guess you could safely touch it to pick it up, for example to keep it safe should I ever lose it, but as soon as you stick it on a finger the curse could activate and kill you. Because we do share blood, and our special connection, I´m not sure if the curse would recognize your hand as equal to mine or not. I don´t want to risk your life to find out. If I ever were to give you this ring for safe keeping, I would modify that curse first."

"Ok, thanks for the warning, but why would I try to hold or wear your ring?" Harry asked.

"I don´t know, " Voldemort replied, "but with how close we have become and all the trouble you get yourself into, who knows what might happen in the future? It`s necessary that you are aware that such items, especially family jewellery, can be cursed this way; well, that´s another face of the Dark Arts for you."

Harry nodded and smiled. "Ok, I´ll be careful. You know I will always look out for you and protect your safeguards, especially Nagini. What shall I do once I have found this diadem? Can I shrink it or transfigure it to give it an ordinary appearance, like say a textbook?"

"Good question," Voldemort answered, pleased that the young wizard thought ahead. "No, do not try to shrink or transfigure it, that´s too dangerous, this could activate a protection curse. But you can disguise it with a rather simple bit of Dark Arts. A Parselmagic glamour charm, which should not interfere with all the other charms on it and which cannot be cancelled by another wizard with _Finite Incantatem_."

"Oh, ok, how do I do that?" Harry asked.

"Before you begin this little ritual,concentrate on your fervent desire that the diadem cannot be seen or felt by our enemies, the light wizards, especially Albus. I´m sure Bella, Lucius and Severus have impressed upon you how important intend and emotions are in using Dark Arts."

When Harry nodded, he continued his instruction, "Cut your hand and let some of your blood drip on the surface, spread it with your fingers, cover it thoroughly inside and outside. Then move your wand like so, as if you wanted to write in a flowing, interconnected script the runes Algiz, Isa and Eiwaz in the air around it and incant in Parsel at the same time you start writing the middle upward branch of Algiz, _{Contain and protect the invisible snakes power inside us delivered through our life blood willingly given.}" _

Harry drew his wand and tried to copy the wand movement a few times. Voldemort demonstrated again until he was sure he remembered it correctly. To practise, Harry summoned a small stone from the garden path. A minute later, he still felt the weight of the stone in his hand, but it was invisible. Casting _Finite Incantatem_ and _Specialis Revelio_ showed no result. Harry was proud, this Dark Arts charm was easy to learn and useful, compared to some of the material in Flitwik´s Charms class.

"Thanks Marvolo, you´re a great teacher," he said, while quickly healing the small cut on his left hand again. "I´m looking forward to learning more Parselmagic during the coming year. This charm will be very handy to hide other things too."

"Oh, you will," Voldemort smirked. "You have those Parsel books from the Potter library and when you get down into the Chamber, leave Severus to his joy of dissecting the Basilisk carcass and go up to Salazar´s personal library, there you can read his Parselmagic notebooks, they are under preservation spells.

"But leave them there for now, we do not know how paranoid Albus will get after witnessing your change and that you are suddenly friends with Draco," warned Voldemort. "I imagine he will find a reason to personally search your trunk or send McGonagall or someone else to do that while you are in class. So anything you want to take along from your new things would have to be well disguised.

"With the charm you just learned, you can do that, but as with this small stone, the item becomes invisible, but you can still feel the weight, that there is something physical. A few invisible things stuffed in your trunk under all your clothes, books, potions ingredients and parchment should not attract attention, but not too many."

"Ok. I think I can take along a few items, because I can put all of them together into a nifty small storage box I found at the manor," explained Harry, as his eyes shone in anticipation.

"This box is only as large as a muggle cigarette pack, but is charmed to hold the content of a rucksack. Only I, as the Potter heir can open it and now you showed me to make this box invisible and inconspicuous. So there will be only one small invisible thing in my trunk, should someone snoop around."

Voldemort smiled at the younger wizard´s cleverness and enthusiasm. After a moment, he frowned again while pondering how to get the diadem back safely.

"I am not sure yet what is best to smuggle the diadem out of Hogwarts undetected and without raising suspicion. Can Hedwig flash in or out of Hogwarts without alerting Albus in any way? As headmaster, he is directly in control of the wards. Did Hedwig try to enter Hogwarts grounds or castle in her phoenix form this summer?"

Harry replied, "No, sorry, we didn´t think of that at all. So far, we know she can flash or fly into Malfoy or Potter manor despite all these wards. We only tried to enter another warded place at Slughorn´s house. He had thrown up a ward against Apparation into the house and to warn him if somebody Apparated near the house. We observed the alarm when Dumbledore Apparated onto the street that first time. Hedwig flashed Draco and me inside to the second floor without setting of that same alarm. I´m positive that Hedwig can flash or fly like an owl through the Hogwarts wards, but I have no idea if flashing will cause an alarm in Dumbledore´s office or not."

"Hmm, let´s see. In the past, the Hogwarts´ wards did not pick up any Dark Arts performed down in the Chamber, so you could go down there. Or, much quicker, you walk from the Hidden Room along the seventh floor corridor to your dorm in Gryffindor tower and send her off from the window up there as soon as you are alone for a minute. If she flies just like any normal bird, like an owl, she should not have any problem to pass the Hogwarts wards and you could disillusion her, so nobody will see a strange phoenix coming or flying away."

"OK, I will talk with Hedwig and come back to you. Bye the way, did I mention that I know of several secret passageways between Hogwarts and Hogsmeade? Did Wormtail ever tell you about them? The Marauders had discovered several tunnels in their time."

Voldemort hissed and kicked a stone on the paths in renewed anger. Scowling, he replied, "No, you haven´t, and he didn´t tell me either, the coward. Write a report and draw a map for me, this could come in handy later."

After stalking down the path and turning another corner in the seemingly never ending maze, he got a handle on his temper and slowed his walk to a leisurely pace again. He turned back to the young wizard following him. "Thanks again, Harry. You never cease to amaze me."

Harry flushed from the unexpected praise. Voldemort spoiled him rotten with attention today.

~...~ TBC~...~


	4. Set up to die

**~~*~~ Shattered Illusions of Safety IV. ~~*~~ **

**by Tonks-is-cool**

**- Rise of the Dark Angel - Additional Scenes -**

**~*~ ****Just Talking: Set up to Die ****~*~**

~...~

"Ok, glad to be of service. Now, what about me? Do you think the Headmaster knows what I am, or better was?"

"Perhaps. Maybe."

They walked a while in silence, finally leaving the evergreen hedge maze through the entrance archway. Harry followed Voldemort and strolled again at his side over the lush green lawn, waiting for more explanations.

"Harry, I wonder – Albus probable suspects what you are or better, were, without really understanding this kind of magic. This could explain his peculiar behaviour towards you and also towards Severus to some extent."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry alarmed and stopped walking.

Voldemort looked around and gestured to a cast iron and oak wood garden bench a few paces away at the side, framed by fragrant climbing roses, tall Ilex, Yew and artistically sculptured Boxwood, shielding it partly from view of the manor house or the main pathway. They strode over and sat down. Voldemort called Tilly to order some late afternoon tea for them, which the little elf delivered after a minute and set it up on a quickly conjured small table.

After casting fresh silencing and scrambling charms around them, the Dark Lord leaned against the backrest, elegantly crossed one leg over the other and rested his left arm behind Harry along the backrest. The younger man was rather nervous and tense at first, but relaxed after they both had devoured some of the tea, crisp cucumber sandwiches and freshly baked crumpets, just right with melting butter and topped with delicious strawberry jam.

He turned to the young wizard besides him and spoke in a soft voice, "I mean how Albus treated you in the years past, it´s so ambivalent, so contradictory. I must confess that I had some interesting dreams these last two nights, no doubt memory fragments transferred from that little soul piece of yours."

"Oh." Harry didn´t like this one bit, but he listened patiently.

"Afterwards, I spend quite some time thinking about the past fifteen years, how your life was manipulated, and how our various encounters played out. We know that Albus believes in the prophesy, he acted upon it from the minute he heard it. Repeat it for me, would you?"

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches," Harry recited dutifully.

"Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…"

"Hm, yes._ And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives_. If Albus believes that you are the only one that can and will kill me, it would seem logical that you should be trained and protected until you are strong enough to face me."

"Yes, but he didn´t really educate or train me purposefully, not like the training I got this summer," mused Harry.

"Quite so, that´s what I find so illogical, so ambivalent," said Voldemort. "It says that you _can_ vanquish me, that you have the potential to do that, not that you _will_ do that. That means you must have power equal to mine, although any logical person would point out this scenario is ridiculous. How can a child, a boy be equal to a grown wizard with decades of experience? That was your reasoning when you came to me."

"Yeah, exactly." Harry nodded.

"Severus told me last summer after my resurrection, that Albus charged him before the start of your first year to keep an eye on you from afar and to protect you. Severus would have done that in any case because of his promise to Lilly and his unbreakable vow to Albus to protect you for Lilly´s sake."

Harry nodded, after all his talks with the potions professor this summer, he understood Snape´s motivation and past actions better.

"It is odd how Albus treated you," Voldemort pondered, "how he allowed you to risk your life the way he did, if he planned to create a strong warrior to kill me of. He let you grow up in an abusive, magic hating muggle household, then let you run wild and put yourself into mortal danger again and again since you arrived at Hogwarts. He seems not to have cared that you could have died or be permanently disabled or maimed along the way, or that other students were endangered."

Harry frowned, but nodded.

"You pose a threat to me, so by all means I should kill you as fast as possible – that is what Albus thought when he heard those words, the same as I when I first heard the start of this prophesy," Voldemort said.

"For a prophesy, the first two lines are very straightforward. No wonder I reacted as I did and I nearly killed myself in attacking you and condemned both of us to merely surviving, not living for over a decade. If I had heard the rest – about marking you, equal in power, surviving versus living – I might have stopped and thought more about it." He shook his head and smiled ruefully. "Well, I hope I would have."

"When looking at it from today, I begin to wonder if this prophesy even is genuine – it certainly came at a most convenient time for Albus. After hearing of it, I concentrated on finding the prophesy child and eliminating that threat, and not so much anymore on the war effort. Today we know that fighting and killing each other is only a possibility and not the absolute unavoidable necessity like Albus interprets it. But from this point of view his actions make sense, well somewhat.

"How so? What he did or does makes not much sense to me," said Harry. "Barmy old coot."

"You told me that Dumbledore firmly believes that your mother´s love protected you from me," stated Voldemort. "I agree somewhat, although I think she prepared a ritual, an ancient protection, using Dark magic invoked by her love, a strong emotion coupled with her willing life sacrifice. He places great emphasis on the term sacrifice, does he not? That your mother protected you by dying for you to survive?"

"Yes, he and other people like Remus or Severus told me that quite often," Harry agreed. "That I should honour her sacrifice, and not endanger my life by foolish stunts after what my mum did for me, after she died for me."

Voldemort nodded. "If that old meddler suspects that I made several Horcruxes," he said, "as I believe he does, and if he believes you to be one of my safeguards, however unintentionally, then it seems - from his warped point of view - logical to push you into a deadly confrontation with me without training you to survive this confrontation.

"I assume that he believes that for me to truly die, you have to die first, because you are my Horcrux," Voldemort explained. "Albus expects Harry Potter to die as a sacrifice, a martyr to take down Lord Voldemort, thereby solving most of his problems. He only has to find and destroy the rest of my Horcruxes before I find another way to regain a body again. In this case, you will never reach your full potential. You will never become powerful enough to challenge Albus, the oh so venerable leader of the Light."

Harry felt like he had been doused in ice water. He had accepted that all the manipulations of the headmaster, beginning from placing him on the Dursleys doorstep to ensuring that Ron, Ginny and Hermione befriended him, worked towards the goal of shaping him into a loyal weapon for Dumbledore; to fight against Voldemort according to that bloody prophesy at some distant point in the future. When he was seventeen and could legally use magic, when he had finished his NEWTs, and could get advanced training like an Auror for example. However, what he had discovered at the end of fifth year and during this summer at Gringotts fit only too well into this theory of Voldemort´s and made everything so much worse.

"You think he set me up to die from the beginning, with no chance to survive?" he asked in a strained voice.

"Yes. That´s the gist of the matter. It seems as if Albus never wanted you to grow up and start living as a free individual. He wanted you just to live long enough to kill me. Perhaps long enough to marry or at least impregnate the Weasley chit, so she or her brat could inherit your money. I´m amazed at the risks he took, it's a miracle you are alive and in one piece at all. He did not prepare you as one would expect a future warrior to be prepared. Nobody gave you any structured defence or combat training. Albus kept you away from general knowledge about the wizarding world, deeper magical knowledge and your heritage as much as possible. Remember at the beginning of summer, before you got your letter from Gringotts and before your so called summer school with Severus and Lucius?"

Oh yes, Harry remembered. His knowledge about tactics, politics and the structure of wizarding society in general were virtually nonexistent.

What did he know about the workings of the Ministry or the Wizengamot? Nearly nothing. OK, he had gotten letters because of underage magic. He had witnessed parts of a Death Eater trial in a penceive. He had been to the Ministry with Arthur Weasley for his hearing, that was all – and then again on that disaster of the mission to rescue Sirius. During the past years he had picked up that Aurors where a kind of policemen, but did he know anything about the rights of the Aurors or the Unspeakables? He remembered that the Malfoys home had been searched for Dark Arts artefacts back in second year, but who had authorized that?

Before that invitation to Gringotts at the beginning of summer, he hadn´t known anything about his inheritance or the wills of his parents or Sirius. He hadn´t even known that there was a will!

Basic wizards' etiquette and the lineages of the great pureblood families were another unknown to him. Harry was in effect like a Muggleborn without any prior knowledge of the wizarding world, even after five years of Hogwarts education.

Lucius had ranted about the loss of knowledge over the past decades, the inadequacy of the current History of Magic classes and a missing class to inform and better integrate Muggle-borns several times. Purebloods despised Muggle-borns for many reasons, one of them was that they simply didn´t know how to act or dress like purebloods, and that they judged everything in the wizarding world by muggle standards, like Granger´s campaign about what she perceived as the slavery of house elves.

Harry was snapped out of his musings when the older wizard continued to talk.

"In the past fifteen years, we have had several direct confrontations," Voldemort reminded him, "however; they did not work out like Albus hoped it would – so I expect he will continue to push you into my path, despite trying to create the impression that he is doing everything to protect you from me. But he didn´t actually care about you, Harry. He never has. All he´s cared about is what you could do for him and his precious Order. Harry, you are nothing but a weapon to him, to be used and then discarded after he has no more use for you."

"Albus main interpretation of the prophesy seems to be the assumption that we cannot both live at the same time, that each one of us has to actively kill the other, that this is our inevitable fate, our destiny. That´s twaddle, of course. This summer it became abundantly clear that we can not only exist or survive at the same time, but actually live a good life, _if _we are on the same side of the war and not opponents anymore."

"For over a year now, we were something like each other's Horcrux, because of the shared blood in my resurrection ritual and my soul piece from 1981 inside you. I think if Albus suspects or knows that you are my Horcrux, then he never even considered that I would discover the true nature of our connection and want to keep you alive or that we would find a way to remove my soul part from your body without killing you."

"Albus insisted that you stayed at your disgusting, abusive relatives, always claiming the need to protect you from my followers and me by utilizing those ominous blood wards. A perfect example of his hypocrisy, because he officially condemns the Dark Arts, but readily made use of your mother´s blood and sacrificial magic himself.

"He is a hypocrite, at the same time he claimed to do everything for your protection, he exposed you to numerous dangerous situations where he could have kept you out of harm's way. Well, his eccentric method worked, you _are _used to face horrible danger unflinching, and you endure pain and damage that would bring anybody else to their knees, you keep on fighting against all odds."

Harry frowned and shrugged. "Well, some things simply happened, trouble always finds me. Every year at Hogwarts was hectic and dangerous, that is true. But Umbridge send the Dementors coincidently when that idiot scum bag Fletcher was on watch – but she could not have known that, could she?"

"I don't know about Umbridge and Fletcher, but last summer, Severus reported that you were supposed to have an order guard 24/7, a fully trained wizard near you all the time to protect you against me and my Death Eaters trying to kidnap you, which is quite ridiculous of course. What could someone like Diggle, Doge, or Fletcher have done apart from trying to escape and raise an alarm if I or Bella and a team of Death Eaters had shown up near your relative's house? But you were left to fend for yourself. It was luck and your own power that saved you from those Dementors, not Lilly´s or Albus protection.

"Well, I wasn´t in the house or garden when they attacked, but in an alleyway some streets away, so there was no protection of those wards against anything there," said Harry. "Oh, I just thought, now that we share blood after your resurrection ritual, is it possible that you could have entered the Dursley´s house without any consequences?"

"Indeed, that is quite possible, despite or because those blood wards Albus relays on so much. I have not tried to visit you in Surrey, because Severus kept your address secret from me, following his vows to protect you again, although he is and was always loyal to me. Maybe we should have tried this early in the summer, just to see what happens. An interesting experiment."

~...~ TBC~...~


	5. The past 5 years: Why did you do that?

**~~*~~ Shattered Illusions of Safety IV. ~~*~~**

**by Tonks-is-cool**

**- Rise of the Dark Angel - Additional Scenes -**

**~*~ Just Talking, ****Why did you do that?**** ~*~ **

**AN: **Thank you all for reading, reviewing and adding my work to your Alerts and Favourites. I am overwhelmed by the positive response to Rise of the Dark Angel and Shattered Illusions, thank you so much. So glad nobody complained how I dealt with Umbitch... you are quite a bloodthirsty lot, aren´t you? Well, Harry insisted and he got his revenge!

* * *

><p>"Now, Hogwarts is a magical school full of teenage wizards, so some amount of commotion and danger is normal, however what you experienced is far from average. Let´s examine your first year at Hogwarts. Why did you attack that mountain troll for example?" Voldemort asked.<p>

Harry only looked at him and shrugged, again. "Seemed the only thing to do at that moment?"

Voldemort sighted exasperated, "Harry, think. The natural reaction of any _normal_ student would have been to run as far away as fast as you could. Remember the panicking students in the great hall after Quirinus announced the troll?"

Harry nodded, he remembered the commotion quite well, children screaming and running hither and thither until Dumbledore called for order and the prefects started to guide everyone to their common rooms.

"Why and how did three first years discover so much about the Philosophers Stone and its protections? Where did you get the absurd idea that it was _your_ job to protect the stone at all and that you could do something to stop an adult, fully trained wizard, regardless that you suspected Severus and not Quirinus to be after it?" asked Voldemort, rather incredulous and annoyed. "You were three eleven or twelve year old children, just starting to learn about magic, not highly trained Ministry Hit Wizards or Aurors or even seasoned Order of the Phoenix members."

Harry just shrugged his shoulders and grinned. "We just did, it kind of happened naturaly."

Voldemort glared at him. "I´d not be surprised if Albus had cast a couple of compulsion charm on you and your friends shortly after you reached Hogwarts, or maybe he cast such charms on them on a earlier date. You would not have noticed, he is after all very good with mind magic. Albus is a very skilled Legilimens, surely he read your thoughts now and then.

"I remember other potentially lethal situations. How did you get into the Forbidden Forest just on the very same night when Quirinus killed and drank blood from that Unicorn to strengthen me? He would have tried to kill you, if that Centaur had not interfered.

"Quirinus nearly killed you at your first Quidditch match. Only Severus noticed and countered his curse on your broom, otherwise you would have plummeted onto the Quidditch pitch from great height. Would Lilly´s protection cushioned your fall? I don´t think so. Where was Dumbledore´s protection? It was very dangerous, you slipped of the broom and could have fallen any moment.

"And think about those obstacles on the way to the stone. All carefully designed in such a way that the Golden Trio could get past them with their first year knowledge. Can you believe these obstacles were installed to keep a fully trained adult wizard, maybe a Death Eater versed in the Dark Arts, not to mention Lord Voldemort away from the stone? Devil´s Snare or a chess game is no great protection," Voldemort scoffed. "And flying keys with brooms standing ready to use for a first year, when any OWL level student knows how to cast _Accio_?"

"The Mirror of Erised was the only real protection. How did you know how to get the stone out of that mirror, by the way? Quirinus couldn´t do it on his own. If you had not shown up, the stone would have stayed hidden in the mirror. Looking back, I´m quite sure it was spelled in a way that even if Quirinus had shattered the mirror, the stone would have stayed hidden in wizard´s space. Isn´t that highly suspicious? It appears as if Albus wanted you to get through the succession of chambers to retrieve the stone."

Harry hugged himself, trying to still the nerveous trembling in his frame. After the ordeal of the stone had been over, he´d desperately tried not to think of what happened anymore; it had been too much to handle for him at the time. It was shocking to reopen the flood gates of those memories and he was astonished that Voldemort remembered everything so clearly, despite his spirit like state of existence at the time, possessing Quirrell.

He struggled to get himself together and to answer the question about the Mirror of Erised, "Uhmmm, about the mirror; well, I had seen it before. During the Christmas holidays I found it in an unused classroom and spend a couple of nights staring into it, because my parents appeared. I had never seen a picture of them before. Then, Dumbledore came one night and explained about the mirror´s power to show ones greatest desire and that it would be moved to another place on the next day."

"Ah, I see, so he did prepare you well in advance, just as I suspected," remarked the older wizard. "That was no coincidence that you found that mirror during the holidays. If Albus had wanted to keep it a secret, he easily could have warded the door, just as he could have warded the third floor corridor and the door to that first chamber that held Fluffy."

"Oh, yeah, I suppose so," mumbled Harry. Of course, looking back on the events in first year with his knowledge from today it was very unusual that the third floor corridor had been as easily accessible to wandering students as it had been, and the door to Fluffy´s chamber had opened with a simple _Alohomora_, a first year unlocking spell.

Voldemort thought about the fight between Harry and Quirinus. That had been a very narrow escape for the boy. "When you fought with Quirinus, your mother´s blood protection saved your life – but only because Quirinus panicked and tried to grab and strangle you with his bare hands. Because your skin touched his, you burnt him to a crisp. Most impressive, I must say. Well, at that time I was shocked and furious of course.

"Nevertheless, we will never know if he could have killed you in another way. For example, had Quirinus cast a dark cutting curse like Sectumsempra at your neck and severed the jugular, I fear you would have bled to death like a slaughtered lamb. Or he could have cast the Strangulation Curse. Or he could have levitated you or cast a blasting hex and then crashed you into one of the stone walls. All these methods without direct physical contact could have killed you, despite Lilly´s protection, because you did sustain injuries that year, it was not like you didn´t bruise or get scratches at all and Quirinus could magically affect you; remember how he bound you with ropes, using Incarcerus?"

Harry nodded, he felt chilly. When he had faced Quirrell, everything had happened so fast, had been so terrifying and confusing, that he hadn´t considered anything else, just fighting to resist and survive.

"I do not understand how Albus could take this immense risk to wait, and wait some more how your confrontation with Quirinus went. He must have been very sure that Lilly´s protection would save you. It did, barely and mostly because of your luck. You still got hurt and scared. You could have just as easily died and Quirinus could have gotten the stone. Did Albus count on the fact that Quirinus would have to go back through all the rooms to get out again? Perhaps Albus installed some more wards over that trapdoor exit and waited there to catch whoever came out again?

"Regardless of this outcome, he set you, a young child in his care, up to kill another human being, in self-defence or not. You simply should not have been there, confronting Quirinus and in effect me," he declared.

After a moment he added, "That was just as cruel as what my Death Eaters or I did in the last war, putting people under the Imperius Curse and forcing them to hurt and kill their colleagues or family members. Mind you, I do not apologize for what we did in the first war. Changing the government system only through politics didn´t work; believe me, the Dark families and later I tried for a long time. But nobody would suspect a similar crime from the wise, venerable, infallible Albus Dumbledore, Supreme Mugwump, Head of the Wizengamont! Well, we probably will never know what his motives were; I doubt he will ever tell us the truth."

Voldemort sounded and looked annoyed and angry, and he was; angry with Albus on Harry´s behalf and angry with himself. Why had he not seen through Albus´s smoke screen and realized that the whole situation with the Philosophers stone was a set up to lure him to Hogwarts, to push him and the Potter boy into a potentially deadly confrontation?

Harry stared up at him with a lost expression; chilled to the bone he hugged himself, then leaned into Voldemort`s arm tentatively tightening around his shoulders. He had experienced so much dangerous adventures in the past five years that he had rather forgotten about those details of first year or pushed them away, because he didn´t want to deal with them. So much had happened, one thing after the other that it was easy to forget. All of what Voldemort stated was true. It hurt to acknowledge the extend of the headmasters manipulation, his callous disregard of Harry´s safety and well-being. Voldemort didn´t even know how Harry got his cloak for that first Christmas from Dumbledore, further tempting him to sneak about the castle at night.

The present of the cloak at Christmas led him to discover the Mirror of Erised in preparation for retrieving the stone later in the school year. Or, what about the situation with Hagrid and Norbert, that led to that ominous detention in the Forbidden Forest. Harry remembered how frightened and outraged Draco had been when Filch and Hagrid told them what their detention was about. That wasn´t a usual, standard detention, several vulnerable, inexperienced first year students roaming the forest at night while something dangerous prowled around that murdered Unicorns.

Who had arranged it then? McGonagall? Was she truly that carefree with the safety of her students, or did the headmaster manipulate the situation to further toughen up Harry? And now he remembered, that afterwards, someone had brought his cloak back; Harry had found it in his bed. At that time he hadn´t know how come, but looking back it was clear that Dumbledore had send a house elf to return the cloak to him. _Use it well_, indeed.

A short comforting squeeze of his shoulder jolted him out of memory lane and he replied, struggling to express his inner turmoil in understandable speech.

"Yeah, you know, when all that happened, I didn´t really think about why it happened. I was so caught up in classes, sneaking around and looking for clues. Yes, yes, I know, I was foolish, naive, reckless, and playing the role everybody expected of me to perfection. Only the Potter luck saved me time and again that year, hell every year."

"Indeed," Voldemort acknowledged. "Think of what you already told me, although I´m positive that there is much more that you have not mentioned yet. I dreamed some snatches, just short scenes from your childhood and your escapades at Hogwarts."

"Oh. I hope nothing too embarrassing?" asked Harry apprehensively, already sporting more colour than normal in his cheeks and neck. Had Voldemort dreamed about Harry and Draco or his time in the Prefect´s bathroom in fourth year being nearly molested by Moaning Myrtle?

"No, although some parts of your memories are exceedingly strange. For example, why is that mudblood Granger sitting on the cold tiles in the girl´s bathroom in front of the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets and brewing Polyjuice?"

Harry groaned, "Please, don´t tell Snape, ok? In second year, we brewed Polyjuice potion in secret to sneak into the Slytherin common room."

This confession caused another raised eyebrow. "Granger brewed Polyjuice potion in her second year? That´s a N.E.W.T. level potion. Who would have thought a Muggle-born could be that smart, apart from your mother?"

After a little pause, while he waited for Harry to elaborate, he asked, "And, who did you impersonate and why?"

"Do I have to tell? It´s embarrassing, alright." Harry made a valiant effort at puppy dog eyes, but then relented under the stern gaze of the Dark Lord. "Ahem, Ron and I changed into Goyle and Crabbe; to try to wheedle information out of Draco about the heir of Slytherin and the Chamber of Secrets," Harry huffed.

Voldemort´s lips twitched, but he didn´t laugh. "Oh well, so you played an extraordinary prank on Draco. Worse was to relive how the Dementors attacked you in third year or that night when you and that Weasley boy ventured into the Forbidden Forest and nearly ended up as Agrumantula snacks. Why? Because Hagrid told you so! Hagrid, who firmly believes that horrible, deadly monsters make the world's best pets. Did Albus or another teacher notice what you were up to, that you were missing, that you were outside in the dark? Didn´t seem like it. Or perhaps Albus knew, but in his wisdom he ignored it, to train and test you some more."

Harry thought back to that day. "Ummm, Dumbledore knew, but he couldn´t do anything. I already told you about this. That was the evening when Fudge and Lucius Malfoy came to Hogwarts. Fudge said that Hagrid was a suspect with his previous record; he said he must go to Azkaban. Hagrid was scared. Lucius had bullied the governors into suspending Dumbledore, because of the continuing petrifaction attacks that he was apparently unable to stop.

"Ron and I were in Hagrid´s hut and listened to everything, hidden of course. Hagrid said something about following the spiders if one wanted to find out what was behind the attacks and to take care of his dog. I remember that Dumbledore winked at us; somehow he could see us, where Fudge and Lucius could not. Dumbledore and Hagrid left the hut together with Fudge and Lucius. And Ron and I ventured out into the forest, following the spiders like good little Gryffindors. Urrgh, that was so gross."

He shuddered at that memory. What an adventure. He felt Voldemort´s left hand reaching around again to his shoulder and biceps, rubbing small circles, and he leaned into the comforting touch.

"Then you discovered where the entrance was and went down to the Chamber of Secrets. We already talked about this; you showed me your memories. In my dream, I felt your urgent desire, the need to rescue Miss Weasley. What baffles me so is that two children, again, believed they had to save the world and that they could and should rescue a girl from a Basilisk. Not a Viper, Boa, Python or an Anaconda, mind you, but a Basilisk, the King of Serpents. How did you and Ron think you could survive and rescue that girl? Severus told me the only real defence spell you learned in second year was _Expelliramus_. Why in Salazar´s name did you do that?" queried the elder wizard exasperated.

"I had to!" exclaimed Harry. "There was talk of eventually closing Hogwarts, and Hogwarts was my home, just it was a home to Tom, I mean to you, when you where young. You were desperate too, when Dippet told you that they would have to close the school after Myrtle´s death. I wanted to find out if the Basilisk really caused the petrifactions, I wanted it to stop, just sneak in, find Ron´s sister and bring her quickly back up to the school."

"But – I didn´t really think about what would happen or how dangerous it might be. Before I entered the chamber, I had no idea that memory Tom was involved or that there could be another wizard down there that controlled the Basilisk. I know looking at this adventure from today, it was utterly idiotic and reckless. Are you still angry at me for destroying the diary?"

He was nervous and apprehensive, remembering the last time they had discussed these events and feared that the dark wizard would suddenly turn on him again. Harry hated to be under the Cruciatus.

"Yes, it was. You acted with absolutely no sense of self-preservation," replied Voldemort. "And no. Well, of course I am still angry, but not so much anymore with you, more at Albus."

He huffed and looked intently at Harry while speaking, reading the growing fear and wariness in the younger man´s eyes. Partly he enjoyed that look, but it was contra productive to their alliance. "Harry, it's alright," he reassured him, again holding the boy in a comforting embrace for a moment before releasing him again when Harry relaxed his tense posture and regulated his breathing.

"How could Albus let something like that happen under his watch?" pondered the Dark Lord. "I must say that I get the impression, again, that this was no accident, that he encouraged your search for a solution to this mystery on purpose, and that he maybe nudged you on with compulsion charms."

Harry shrugged, "Duno. It's hard to tell, it's so long ago, but you could be right, I acted exceedingly reckless at Hogwarts, compared to my behaviour while still in muggle primary school."

"Hmmm, well, think about it. Albus is headmaster since 1956 and he was my transfiguration teacher during the late thirties and early forties. He attended Hogwarts himself about a hundred years ago. He knows very well what kind of dangerous creatures roam in the Forbidden Forest. How could he let you and Ron run off into the forest searching for spiders without alerting McGonagall?"

"Moreover, he speaks to the ghosts and portraits since forever, as a student, a teacher and headmaster. He _knows_ the castle like the back of his hand for Morgana´s sake! How could he not have been aware of what was happening? Albus always suspected that I was responsible for opening the Chamber of Secrets the first time, and that Hagrid was innocent. So he must have been well aware that either I personally or someone else working for me was involved when it happened again in your second year. You mentioned that when you told me last time, about what he told the Weasley family in McGonagall´s office."

"Something else does not add up. How did the Weasley girl, a Gryffindor first year, manage to leave Gryffindor tower so many times without her classmates, a prefect or her Head of House noticing? This little girl killed the roosters, painted bloody messages on the corridor walls and let the Basilisk attack some students without one portrait or ghost or teacher or fellow student noticing anything at all? That´s very hard to believe. It was not easy for me in my time, and I was a fifth year student, a prefect, capable of advanced magic, with an arsenal of Dark Arts to use and a circle of devoted followers in Slytherin ready to cover for me. Even if diary Tom controlled her actions, I find that very hard to imagine that nobody besides your Golden Trio noticed anything amiss."

"Oh, someone noticed. Percy, her elder brother, a Gryffindor prefect."

"And?"

"And, nothing. She evaded him, or talked her way out of it. As far as I am aware, he didn´t inform McGonagall that his sister was behaving odd; perhaps out of family loyalty, perhaps because he couldn´t imagine that she had anything to do with the petrifactions and thought she simply had difficulty adapting to life away from home. She is his baby sister, after all.

"I don´t think he knew for example about the dead roosters. I only knew because I was close to Hagrid, I saw him on his way to Dumbledore and he told us that something or someone had killed the roosters. Only Granger finally figured out what all those clues meant connected together, the petrifactions, the spiders fleeing, the roosters killed, that I heard a cruel voice in the walls that nobody else heard, and that Moaning Myrtle had died so suddenly in a toilet cubicle in that bathroom fifty years ago."

"Yes, it seems like nobody else figured it out, which I find so very hard to accept," mused Voldemort. "Severus confirmed your report, that Albus was strangely passive and didn´t tell the heads of houses, McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwik or Severus anything substantial or useful. They did not know that the fabled monster of Salazar Slytherin was a giant serpent, a Basilisk. They had a very vague idea that You Know Who was involved somehow, nothing more. Severus told me that he was terribly worried that one of his Syltherins would get hurt or killed accidently."

"Oh," Harry said slowly. "Yes, now that I know Snape better, that does not surprise me. Back in second year, we Gryffindors thought that all Slytherins were happy and gleeful about the petrifaction, well as long as only Filch´s cat or Muggle-borns were attacked. Only after Penelope Clearwater was petrified together with Granger this changed, the Slytherins were now also afraid after a pure-blood suffered. Did you talk to Lucius? What did he think he was doing, setting Slytherin´s mythical monster upon the school?"

Voldemort scowled. "Lucius had no idea what the diary actually was and no concept of what he had unwittingly unleashed upon the school. I interrogated him on that same day after checking upon my safeguards and he was utterly shocked and horrified that Draco could have ended up also petrified or dead, had he and his Slytherin classmates accidently run into the Basilisk. Fool that he was."

"You – you punished him harshly, didn´t you?" Harry asked with some trepidation. He remembered that Lucius had been missing from his usual teaching routine the next day.

"Well, yes, I did punish him," replied Voldemort, "although I think I was rather lenient with him. He is still alive and all limbs attached, isn´t he? Don´t tell me you feel sorry for him? Lucius is no naive schoolboy. He acted against a very simple and clear order from me, to keep this diary safe and locked up, come what may. That was not to be misunderstood or misinterpreted in any way. And on top of that, he tried to keep what happened from me; he didn´t tell me after my resurrection, probable in the hope that I had forgotten about that diary."

Harry still felt somewhat bad for Lucius, because the man hadn´t known what the diary was. But on the other hand, he had caused complete chaos at Hogwarts and a difficult year for Harry.

"Hm, yes, he should have kept your diary safe, simply because you had told him so. If he wanted to get back at Arthur Weasley, surely he could have slipped something else into Ginny´s cauldron," Harry commented.

"Indeed," said Voldemort. "Lucius caused so much damage, inadvertently or not. A part of me is destroyed, Dumbledore got his hands on the diary, providing proof that I made at least one Horcrux as a student, and you also killed the Basilisk. Well, Lucius was very, very sorry and ended up desperately grovelling at my feet, begging for Draco´s life."

Harry jumped up, shocked and incensed. "What! You wouldn´t!" he shouted at the older man, drawing his wand in an aggressive movement without thought.

"Potter!" Voldemort snapped with narrowed eyes, incensed by the disrespect. Nobody else would dare to defy him like Harry, this intriguing, refreshing, invaluable, but so impudent brat. Although he sensed the rapidly coiling magic in Harry getting ready to attack him, he held back on releasing his magic or cursing him at once, instead asking, "Harry, did I harm Draco that day or in the following days?"

"No, you didn´t," the young man conceded, he was shocked by his own behaviour. "Sorry. I shouldn´t ... I didn´t mean to ... I´m sorry, my Lord," he stuttered.

Quickly taking a step back and dropping to one knee, he bowed his head, his gaze fixed on to Voldemort´s suddenly very interesting robe hem. Harry struggled to get his raged breathing under control again. His turbulent emotions and magic had enflamed like Fiendfyre by his protective feelings for his lover.

He blushed furiously, angry and ashamed that he still could not control his emotions as soon as Draco was concerned. In his head he heard Snape sneering at him during their failed Occlumency lessons last winter, _'The Dark Lord ... He will penetrate your mind with absurd ease ... Focus now... Control your anger... Discipline your mind!'_

He waited, and when after a few heartbeats no stern reprimand or curse was coming his way, he dared to ask, "But sir, why would Lucius assume...?"

"Get up and come back here, sit down," Voldemort snapped.

When the young wizard reluctantly did so, Voldemort reached out and tipped his chin up, so that he could look into Harry´s troubled green eyes while explaining, "It was a misunderstanding. I had asked Lucius if he realized that his actions endangered his only son, his heir. I meant that Draco was in grave danger in his second year, like any other student at Hogwarts, because a hungry Basilisk roamed the castle, barely controlled by a possessed little girl."

"Yeah, true. We all were so lucky that nobody died," commented Harry, relieved at hearing the explanation and seeing the sincerity in Voldemort´s eyes. "And what did Lucius think you meant?"

"He thought I would kill Draco as retribution for his misconduct, something not uncommon during my first rise to power," the Dark Lord replied.

"Oh," Harry gulped. "And – would you have done that, in the past?"

"Maybe." Voldemort studied Harry´s apprehensive face. "People fear me for a reason, you know."

He smirked. "You do, too, although much less than others, which is quite alright I suppose. You´re special, my little apprentice. Don´t presume too much, though. You must learn to keep your mask and your temper, or people will exploit your weaknesses. But you know that very well, don´t you?" He reached up to ruffle Harry´s dark locks affectionately.

Harry snorted and ducked his head, feeling more at ease again, now relatively sure that Voldemort had not planned to harm his lover because of Lucius mistakes. He felt a bit proud to be called the Dark Lord´s apprentice, although he resented the endearing title 'little' very much, but the words had sounded more like their usual teasing again. And of course he knew he had to learn to keep his cool.

Voldemort fixed him with a fierce look. "In the first war, if a wizard defied me, he risked not only his life, but that of his whole family. And everybody knew that, so I didn´t have to worry much about betrayal from my followers, and only very few Aurors or Order members dared to stand against my Death Eaters. The Dark families supported us, either with intelligence, money, supplies, property or their sons as soldiers. The light families shivered in terror, and the neutral ones tried to keep their heads down and out of the line of fire. I was very close to winning that conflict before I became obsessed with that dratted prophesy and went after your family. Well, I paid dearly for that mistake."

"Ok, ok, I get it" nodded Harry. He was shaken up by their conversation, but also relieved that they could talk openly this way and that he learned so much about Voldemorts thoughts and point of view. Dumbledore had never talked this freely with him or explained his motives or decisions so precisely. He waited patiently, while Voldemort seemed to be far away in thought next to him.

After a little while thinking about what would have happened nearly three and a half years ago, if his Horcrux had been successful in becoming corporal, if Harry had not come down to the Chamber at all or perhaps an hour later, Voldemort pulled himself out of his musings and addressed the young wizard again.

"Well, that was your second year, very eventful. If I look at your next two school years, there was a lot of danger to you that I´m not responsible for - or only partly. Again, I do not understand Albus. If you are the saviour, the only hope of the light, why risk your health and life this way? Before third year, the Dursleys treated you so terrible that you ran away during summer. You were so angry, rightfully so. How easily could you have blown your aunt up with Confrigno or Expulso, instead of only inflating her? Would Fudge have been as jovial to you if she had been splattered in a gory mess all over the living room, hmmm?"

"She – she would have deserved it; she is a vile, fucked up bitch," Harry snarled. "But I would have been expelled and in Azkaban before the night was over, no way Fudge and Dumbledore could have overlooked murder."

"Well, that is likely," agreed Voldemort. "Your third year certainly was quite dramatic from what I observed in the dreams and what Wormtail and Severus reported. Dementors targeted you several times. Remus forgot to drink his Wolfsbane and nearly killed you, Severus and your friends. Sirius Black was only meters from you before the Knight bus came and later was able to enter Hogwarts grounds and castle several times. He was not threat to you, but at that time Albus, Severus or Remus didn´t know that."

Harry nodded, "Yeah, that´s true. I had to learn to cast the Patronus that year, cause if I hadn´t managed it they would have kissed me several times. One time, they got me high up in the air during a Quidditch match in a raging storm. To play in that weather with lighting and rain was madness in itself. I was chasing the snitch, as always, when suddenly dozens of Dementors swarmed around me, it was horrible. After a while I couldn´t fight them anymore, I heard my mum scream over and over amidst flashes of green light until I lost consciousness."

Harry shuddered, as he recounted that Quidditch game. The coldness and darkness emitting from the Dementors had been truly frightening.

"That´s the one time were Dumbledore directly interfered to save my neck, besides at the Ministry debacle in May," he stated. "Later, they told me that he was standing in the spectator stands and cast a charm that slowed my fall, so I woke up again in the hospital wing broken, but alive. But my broom shattered to splinters. And on that other night when Wormtail escaped, I had to fend off about a hundred Dementors, alone, or they would have killed Sirius and me."

Again he shuddered, that encounter with the Dementors had been even more horrifying compared to the attack during the Quidditch game.

"Incredible, congratulations on doing the impossible, again Harry," Voldemort praised him. "Severus reported that he did not recognize the wizard who conjured the Patronus from across the lake because he was too far away, but that it was most impressive, powerful magic."

Harry blushed; he still was reluctant to accept compliments.

"So, on to the mess of your fourth year. Yes, I instigated that Barty took Moody´s place and entered you into the Triwizard Tournament. But Albus forced you to compete. He didn´t even try to find another solution or later he did nothing to help you."

"What could he do?" Harry replied. "Barty junior and senior said I had to compete, it was in the rules."

"Oh, Albus could have done something," Voldemort argued. Harry looked sceptical.

"Of course Barty played his part well and insisted you compete, that´s exactly what I had ordered him to do. But imagine for a moment that another fourth years name had come out of that Goblet of Fire," contemplated Voldemort.

Seeing Harry´s doubtful look, he raised a sceptical eyebrow, and asked, "What would have happened if for example Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott, or – let´s say Ernie Macmillan had been in your place?"

Harry didn´t have to mull over this question, to him the reaction was blatantly obvious. "At first, they would have been surprised, very proud and cocky to have been chosen, but then they would have wet their pants and cried for daddy and mummy to fix it!"

Voldemort smirked. "Yes, they would have, they are not nearly as tough and brave as you are."

Harry blushed again, what was it today with all those compliments?

Voldemort´s next remark sobered him up.

"And - they were not as alone as you. They also were underage students; they simply were not allowed to compete, so they would have asked to contact their parents from the nearest fireplace. Believe me, not one of my Death Eaters or supporters would have allowed their underage, untrained child to accept the status of second Hogwarts champion because they were well aware of how dangerous this Tournament was in the past.

"Had Draco´s name come out of the Goblet of Fire, Lucius would have swooped down upon that Triwizard judge committee like a raging dragon and demanded another name choosing ceremony at once, with better protection than that age line of Albus that Barty mentioned. There should have been a protection ward on the Goblet of Fire that only names would be considered of at least 17 years old wizards or witches who had written their name themselves – with a blood quill - to make cheating impossible. In this case, a blood quill would be legitimate to use, by the way. They have their use not as torture instruments, but to sign contracts.

"If you had declared that you did not enter your name and that you outright refused to compete and if your magical guardian – which was Albus at the time - had interfered according to protocol, that means formally demanding a new name choosing, then that would have happened.

"The already chosen champions would have had to formally declare right after your name came out of the Goblet that they refused to compete because of irregularities in the champion choosing process and that would have been enough to cancel their own status as Triwizard Tournament champions. Without champions, no tournament, right?"

"Oh." Harry was stumped. He never knew these rules. Well of course not, at the beginning of that school year he had been excited that the Triwizard Tournament would be held at Hogwarts, he had been eager and interested from a spectator's point of view. There had been no reason to read up information about past tournaments or the intricate rules of the competition.

"The Goblet would have relit and new parchment slips with names would have to be dropped into it for a new round of choosing the champions. They could have done that right there on that evening, because all students and headmasters from the three schools and the judges were already present in the Great Hall.

"Of course, in the confusion of that moment nobody told you or the other young people just how to get out of this situation and that´s exactly on what this absurd plan of mine, Barty´s and Wormtail´s counted. Barty reported that you spoke up, you tried to protest, but you did not say the correct formal words according to the rules and where cut off quickly by Albus, the other headmasters and of course Barty. You had no chance, again because of your lack of knowledge and adult support."

Harry shuddered and tensed up. Gritting his teeth and balling his fists so hard that his fingernails dug halfmoons into his palms, he turned away from the older wizard. In his mind Cedric´s rigid face stared up at him while he stood tied to Tom Riddle´s gravestone, exhausted and injured from the third task, bleeding and screaming in agony from the pain in his curse scar. That memory was still very vivid.

"In hindsight it was not one of my brightest plans, although it worked out quite well – you came at the right time to the right place," murmured Voldemort, speaking mostly to himself. Observing Harry´s reaction, he sighted and again reached around the distressed young man, pulling him gently against his side.

Harry resisted for a moment, and then he leaned into the offered comfort and warmth of the body behind him. He felt surreal, detached. He couldn´t change the past, he had to make the best of the present, do everything and anything to come out of this war alive and strong – and being on the Dark side, supporting the murderer of his parents and Cedric was his best chance. He felt Voldemort resting his chin on top Harry´s hair. He didn´t say out loud that he was sorry, but to Harry it felt like an apology. That didn´t bring back Cedric, though.

They sat like that for a few minutes, lost in their memories, regrets and contemplating various 'What – if´s', before Voldemort moved away from Harry and said, "As far as I heard from Barty, not one of the teachers or upper year Gryffindor students helped or protected you against the rest of the hostile school or shouldering the potentially lethal tasks. What would you have done if Barty hadn´t helped you behind the scenes with his hints and clues?"

"I don´t know, probably died right away as a well roasted dragon snack or later drowned in the freezing cold lake?" answered Harry sarcastically, before he nodded, "Yeah, that´s right, Barty told me himself how he had helped me before he wanted to finish me off. But Granger, Fred and George Weasley believed me from the start that I didn´t cheat, that I truly didn´t want to participate in the bloody tournament."

"Alright, so the twins and the mudblood were the grand exception," conceded Voldemort. "If it hadn´t already happened, it´s really difficult to imagine that your school teachers and your house mates left you to fend for yourself, hiding behind rules that the champions should solve the tasks alone. Ridiculous, of course the other champions from Durmstrang and Beaubatons got help from their headmasters and fellow classmates to prepare for the tasks. Barty watched them talking and practising out on the grounds a few times. That says quite a lot about how much the Hogwarts teachers and students valued your life and your honour, doesn´t it? Not to mention that vile smear campaign in the Daily Prophet."

"None, nothing," answered Harry in a huff. "That´s what I hate about all this Boy-Who-Lived tripe, it was like that from the first day I officially returned to the wizarding world. Either I was their worshiped hero, the saviour of the Light, a virtual angel, or I was seen as the exact opposite, a attention seeking, mediocre, arrogant brat; a cheater; dangerous, plotting the fall of the Light, potential murderer of Muggle-borns, a Dark wizard just because I speak Parseltongue, called the next young Dark Lord in training."

"Indeed, that you are now, my apprentice," winked Voldemort at him, reaching out to ruffle Harry´s raven black hair fondly, "It baffles me how the so called Light wizards expected you to fight me and to sacrifice yourself for them after this level of betrayal, even without all that slander from last year."

"Yeah, me too," growled Harry.

"The fallen angel, the dark angel, the Muggles would call you," mused Voldemort, suddenly remembering the religious indoctrination from his orphanage days.

"Yeah, well, that I am, and it´s all their fault," hissed Harry, embracing his returned anger eagerly to banish the maudlin thoughts and memory of Cedric falling down from the green light.

"And back to Albus. I wouldn´t be surprised if he now plans to tell you about what he has discovered about my safeguards and will encourage you to find and destroy them, to kill my soul one part after the other. But he will not tell you to your face that you have to die first for his grand plan to work. He will not tell you that you have to let me kill you. That you have to die to truly 'vanquish' me," here he mimicked quotation marks with his fingers, "according to his interpretation of the Prophesy. Manipulative, two-faced bastard!" Voldemort finished his rant breathing heavily and glaring holes into the next bush.

Harry shook his head again and brushed his fingers through his black locks, and then he turned his head smiling faintly at the tall wizard next to him, trying to keep the turmoil of hurt, bitterness and anger of his face and out of his voice.

"You know, it's kind of really weird to hear you talk like this. Some things still hurt, but I will get over it in time. Growing up, there never was an adult that looked out for me. Somebody that listened and understood like you do and who at the same time had the power and motivation to really help me. I could not talk like this with Sirius, although I desperately wanted to."

"Why ever not?" asked Voldemort, deliberately not commenting on what else Harry told him. "You were so distraught over his death at the Ministry; I had the impression you were very close to your godfather."

"Well, yeah, I loved him, he loved me and I was torn apart when he fell through the veil. I didn´t know him that well, though, we did not have much time to talk in privacy or simply be together. During fourth year, he was far away most of the time, on the run. During the time last summer and winter, when I was inside Grimmauld Place, there was always so much mindless activity and disturbance; Ron and Hermione kept me distracted or Mrs. Weasley kept everyone busy with cleaning the house.

"I think I loved the possibility Sirius represented. An adult guardian that cared for me, Harry, and not the Boy Who Lived. An adult there just for me, that could provide a place to live away from the bloody Dursleys. Sirius wanted that, but he couldn´t do what he wanted. That's why I hate Wormtail so much, he framed Sirius by blowing up that street and faking his own death. And Dumbledore, for setting this tragedy up to happen, leading you to Wormtail and killing my parents. The old man kept me and Sirius apart deliberately, doing nothing to get a fair trial. And to some extend I hate Bella too, although she is the person I can perhaps forgive, she and Sirius are, were, soldiers in a war, fighting each for their cause.

"On the few occasions I met Sirius in the past two years, my so called friends and I told him of our adventures of course, but it was an edited version, more like telling about pranks. Sirius loved me, but he often seemed caught up in his own past, the great Marauders time. Sirius and Remus always told me stories about my dad at Hogwarts, about their oh so funny pranks. It was a rude awakening when I realized that they were nothing but a group of schoolyard bullies that targeted Slytherins on principle. This bullying reminded me too much of my cousin Dudley and his gang of friends playing Harry Hunting.

"I think Sirius would have been horrified to learn the true details of what really happened to me inside and outside of Hogwarts; how close to injury and death I was all this time and that in reality, Dumbledore was somehow responsible for most of these situations and not the evil You Know Who. Well, in third, fourth and fifth year it was obvious that life at Hogwarts was not so good for my health. Sirius wanted to help me, but he could not be there like I needed him. And that was not his fault, but Dumbledore´s and Wormtail´s."

~...~ TBC~...~


	6. Harry s Hogwarts mission

**~*~ Shattered Illusions of Safety IV. ~*~**

**by Tonks-is-cool**

**- Rise of the Dark Angel - Additional Scenes - **

**~*~ Just Talking: Harry´s Hogwarts Mission ~*~**

~...~

Heavy silence elapsed again, which turned into companionable silence a while later. Finally, Voldemort stood up. "Alright Harry," he spoke, "enough feeling blue and sulking." After pulling Harry to his feet, he resumed their walk through the peaceful garden. "You´ll get your revenge on Umbridge soon and on Albus later, although for him you´ll have to stand in line behind the LeStrangers and me."

"I´m so looking forward to that!" Harry growled. "Revenge is sweet."

Voldemort smirked. "And revenge is a dish that is best served cold. Find a subtle way to knock Albus out, disarm him and transport him with Hedwig into a secure, well warded dungeon or somewhere else depending on the war situation when it happens. That would be just lovely. Surprise me, Harry, prove yourself. I expect a result preferably in October, but definitely before the end of December."

Harry´s eyebrows shot up to his hairline, while his expressive green eyes widened comically and his mouth formed an O of surprise.

"Oh. You´re ordering me to do this? You mean capture him secretly, not kill him?" the young wizard asked apprehensive.

"Yes, I think so."

"Couldn´t Snape simply, I don´t know, uuh - poison him?" asked Harry.

"Of course, Severus knows his poisons," Voldemort smirked. "He could slip him something into his tea that instantly kills. For example, Ibidem Nex kills very quickly and you only need one drop for the average human, the poison is called Taxin from yew, by the way."

"So, it would work?"

"Why, of course. Do not insult Severus´s abilities. To kill the old coot like this is possible, but lacking in essentials. I want Albus to realize that you are not any more his Golden Boy, his weapon, and that Severus is my spy, not his, before he dies," Voldemort replied. "His death should be in front of Light side witnesses, not just some frightened children, to ensure there is no doubt or mystique about it. And, I suppose Bella would be terribly upset with Severus if he killed Albus so painless and quickly."

Harry nodded and smirked, imagining a furious, shrieking Bellatrix, her wild mane quivering from rage, stomping her feet and firing hexes at anybody in her range. Both wizards shared the mental picture with a grin.

"Tell Severus, but nobody else, understood? This is your mission, your responsibility." stated Voldemort, fixing the young man with his intense gaze. "Be careful not to compromise Severus, Lucius or your true position in the war until everything is ready."

Harry swallowed to clear his suddenly dry throat, now how should he do that? It was one thing to wish harm to the Headmaster, to dream of revenge, and something else entirely to be responsible to take down a wizard of his calibre. Harry remembered well the words of caution from Voldemort before the Slughorn mission, that he shouldn´t underestimate the Headmaster. But – he would not be all alone facing such a monumental task. Snape was cunning, experienced, and he knew Dumbledore´s habits well.

"OK, sir, I´ll do my best," he replied a bit nervously, but very proud to lead such an important mission. "Can I tell Draco?"

Voldemort shook his head determined. "It´s 'May I' and no."

He raised his hand to stop Harry´s next question. "I expect that you´ll utilize your friends in some way to support you; same as you will use them to get free time to go to the Room of Hidden Things and search for the diadem or free time to go down to the Chamber. Use them, but do not disclose what exactly you are doing. They don´t need to know that to help you."

Harry looked up troubled and bit his bottom lip. Why not? He narrowed his eyes and put his mind to work. Voldemort was extremely lenient and patient with him, he acknowledged that... so the older wizard wanted him to figure this out and learn something, as usual.

What were Dumbledore´s strengths? Tremendous magical power and talent, knowledge and experience. He was revered throughout the wizarding world. Great political power and infuence, after being reinstated as Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump. Leader of the Order of the Phoenix. Owner of a phoenix, that could flash him out of tight corners. Complete control of the castle wards because of his Headmaster position.

It would be very difficult to keep what Harry did or planned to do a secret. Keeping a secret... Oh. Oh, oh, oh. OK, he got it!

Dumbledore was a good Legilimens. Not as good as Voldemort, according to Snape, but very good. Harry and his friends did have quite a few Occlumency lessons during the summer, and Snape let them know that their minds were adequately protected, for people of their age and level of training. Still, there was a risk that Dumbledore would try to pry information out of their minds, should he try in earnest, should he become suspicious. Harry was confident that he could misdirect him, he had done so in the past, but he was not completely sure how good the others were, yet.

He looked up at Voldemort and nodded, which the Dark Lord answered with a smirk.

"If he acts like I assume," Voldemort continued, "he will be searching for my past, and my Horcruxes. A possibility to attack him inside or outside of Hogwarts should present itself to you. He will most likely take you along if you insist that you want to help him. Of one place you already know, the Room of Hidden Things. You must search there for the diadem as soon as possible and send it to me with Hedwig. Should Albus have already found it -?"

He clenched his fists and hissed a slew of curses under his breath in Parseltongue.

Harry smirked and nodded. "Ok, I´ve got it. If I cannot find the diadem inside the Room, I´ll find a way to search his office, I´ll have to do that anyway, you asked me to get the diary back if possible. Hedwig can flash me in and out, but I have to practise that freezing charm, to keep the old headmaster´s pictures from spying on me. Where else could Dumbledore suspect one of your safeguards to be?"

"Hmmm. It is possible that he will visit Godric´s Hollow, the small village where your parents were in hiding. The house is a ruin, a monument of the Potter family stands on the main village square, and your parents are buried in the graveyard behind the church. Perhaps Albus believes that I hid something there after my return."

"Oh? I didn´t know that," said Harry. "Nobody has ever told me where they were buried, or that there was anything left. I really was so busy last summer... Of course, the goblins would have known, but I didn´t think to ask..." He felt suddenly ashamed, a bad son, forgetting his parents – whom he had never known.

Harry sighted. "I´d like to go there one day, just to see it. I don´t know, perhaps I´m silly..."

Voldemort looked at him gravely and replied, "No, I don´t think it´s silly. It's sad and unfair to you and unfair to their memory. Albus, Sirius, Remus or Severus should have told you years ago. I suppose Albus didn´t want to for some reason or other, and Sirius, Remus and Severus probably each believed that somebody else had already spoken to you or that it was not their place to tell you. It hurt all of them to think of either James or Lilly. I´m sure they assumed your aunt would have told you and taken you along to visit the grave of her sister, it´s what a decent aunt would have done after all."

Harry nodded, wondering how Voldemort knew, had the Dark Lord visited Godric´s Hollow again after his resurrection? He looked into his eyes, silently voicing the question, and Voldemort answered, "Yes, I was there once. I suppose to pay my respect to Lilly Evans for nearly killing me, which was quite a feat for such a young witch. She was very clever and talented."

Harry was surprised, "What was it like? Did her ghost rise from the grave and haunt you?"

"No, no, nothing as that. The graveyard was dark, quiet and deserted. It´s just a simple tombstone there with a short inscription. Their names, and the quote: _The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death._"

"Quote? Where from?" asked Harry.

"King James Bible 1 Corinthians; _For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death._ Whoever arranged the Potter's funeral chose this line, perhaps because Lilly was a Muggle-born, no idea," replied the older wizard with a sneer of contempt.

Harry noticed this, obviously the Dark Lord disliked the idea of a Muggle Bible quote on a wizards' couple´s grave, or was there something else behind the reaction? How did he know the words, then? He tried to cheat Death with his Horcruxes and the quote fit oddly, Voldemort was determined to overcome the Light wizards, to win the war and rule over the wizarding world. Harry didn´t ask, it was not important to know every personal detail about the man, maybe he would explain one day.

Then he pushed these morbid thoughts aside again and asked, "And, is there any other place the Headmaster might check up on?"

After a moment of silence, Voldemort conceded the possibility. "Indeed, there is one other place he probably could find – a very, very remote possibility, but still. If he tells you about a place near the sea, with steep cliffs, with a cave underneath where something of great value to me could be hidden ... Well, after you´re back at Hogwarts, let´s wait and see how he acts and what he reveals to you. Come here to report on Sunday morning, after your first week of classes. I expect Albus will summon you to his office during that first week."

"Yeah, I think he will want to see me in any case," repiled Harry. "I expect that he will grill me about my whereabouts this summer and why I am so cold to my former friends. He will have questions about how I became friends with Draco, and Cory, because I do not plan to hide that we are friends. When he questions my behaviour, I´ll tell him that I am still a bit angry over the will reading, and that the goblins wrote to me, and the twins told me, so I know what Sirius said and who inherited what."

"Yes, diffuse his suspicions. You only have to act accordingly once you are back at Hogwarts. About your friendship with Draco, make something up that´s close to the truth, like that because he inherited Grimmauld Place, you two met there somehow, talked and got over your animosity. Tell him that you stayed during the rest of the summer at a well protected Potter property, because your relatives went off by themselves on a long vacation.

"Tell him you simply wanted to have time for yourself without disturbance to grieve your godfather. Ascertain that you are your own person, that you want to fight me with better preparation and training and that you want to be taken seriously, not treated like a child anymore. Repeat what you have already told him last year, that you want to know what goes on in the Order, and what my plans are, to avoid more people dying because you have too limited information to make the right decisions."

Harry nodded, "OK, that´ll be easy. After how we parted last year right after the fiasco at the Ministry, I believe he will try to make it up to me."

He had to forcefully push away the piercing pain from the memory of Sirius falling into the veil and concentrated instead on his anger, standing with Dumbledore in the Headmaster´s office afterwards.

Sensing the powerful magic swirling and curling inside the younger wizard, fuelled by his dark emotions, Voldemort smirked. "Show great interest and enthusiasm to defeat me, to learn more about your enemy when you talk with Albus in his office. I´m sure he will start telling you about his suspicion that I made more than one Horcrux."

"Ok, I´m curious how he has discovered something about your past," Harry said. "I won´t have to pretend to be interested."

"If you find a way to overwhelm him inside Hogwarts, do it sneaky, quick and determined. You stand no chance alone against Albus in an open, all out duel. Should you and Severus come to the conclusion that you plan does not work, wait and regroup. Avoid suspicion, stay safe. It does not matter much if it takes a few weeks more or less, but I would like to have Dumbledore dealt with before we move to overtake the Ministry and kill Minister Scrimgeour.

"If needs be, Severus could always feed him titbits he 'discovered' about some hiding place, or you could claim to have seen something from your visions to lure him away from the castle. I only hope he does not know of the cave yet by other means and has already been there or told some Aurors. Should you discover something along these lines, you must tell me at once. Do you know what two-way mirrors are?"

"Yeah, I know. A two-way mirror is one in a pair of mirrors that are magically connected."

Harry bit his lip, but kept a blank face otherwise, struggling to keep his anger and pain under control. He could kick himself endlessly for forgetting the mirror in his trunk, for not reading Sirius´ note in time; for not wondering what it was that Sirius had given him in that last minute. He wished so often that Sirius had explained the use of the little two-way mirror personally to him last Christmas, because most likely Sirius would still be alive if Harry had only realized that he could talk to him any day.

"Before you leave for Hogwarts, I´ll supply you with one," Voldemort stated. "If you can´t reach me that way, send Hedwig if its urgent, regardless if its day or night. Well, we shall see. Tell him that the young LeStrange wrote to you and later stayed with you while Lady Longbottom was travelling on the continent, that shouldn´t be too suspicious. Albus will probably remember that your grandparents owned not only the property in Godric´s Hollow where later James and Lilly lived, but also a Potter family manor. "

"OK, I can do that, sir, and it is very near the truth, so I won´t have a problem projecting the matching images," Harry assured him, smirking. "I´ll only have to occlude about you, Snape, the LeStrangers and of course Draco. The Headmaster might have heard of Potter Manor years back, when my father or grandfather were in school, but he never mentioned that it existed to me, same as he never told me that there was a Potter family vault besides my trust vault or that I own that property at Godric´s Hollow. So, this is your main plan for the next weeks or months, to capture and kill the old coot?"

"Indeed. I want Albus out of the picture, as soon as you can manage it, preferably until Samhain, but don´t do anything foolish. Without their leader the rest of the Order will fall apart, the Wizengamont and the International Confederation of Wizards will be equally headless." Voldemort chuckled sinisterly at the mental picture of a few dozen chickens in red robes running around headless, while Albus´ head sat atop a spike in front of the Wizengamont, calling for order and a united front against the oh so sinister, evil Dark wizards.

"My followers are working hard to overtake the Ministry from the inside," he stated. "As you know I have already eliminated Amelia Bones, she was a formidable witch; she fought like a wild Werecat. She was a possible successor to Fudge and Scrimgeour." Voldemort smirked in fond remembrance; he respected a competent and fierce opponent.

"OK. What about the Order of the Phoenix?" Harry asked. "Do you plan to kill them all?"

Voldemort smiled like a shark, drawling, "That depends. Emmeline Vance is gone, she was a strong witch. Bill and Charlie are on our side now. There are several old or otherwise weak wizards, like Elphias Dodge, Daedalus Diggle or that scum Mundungus Fletcher, they will be taken care of soon. Perhaps the twins or Bill will find one or two that want to declare neutral. Those like the Aurors Mad Eye Moody or Kingsley Shaklebolt are a bit more of a challenge, they must be taken down."

"Yeah, Moody is fanatical, vicious, he hates all Dark wizards with a passion," Harry remarked. "I got that when I was at headquarters last year. He is proud to have killed many Death Eaters in the first war. Kingsley – hm, doesn´t he now work as a secretary to the Muggle Prime Minister to guard him? I believe someone mentioned it, perhaps Severus or Lucius."

"Indeed, he does. The Order managed to pull a few strings in the DMLE to place him there, in a very important position. That was at the beginning of summer, before I killed Bones. I do not want to exterminate the whole wizarding world as you know, but there are people very loyal to Dumbledore, like Dodge, Diggle, Moody, Shaklebolt, Hestia Jones, Sturgis Podmore, or the blood traitor Weasleys and Tonks, who will not stand back and accept a new regime under my leadership without trying to organize resistance and constantly seed unrest. It would be injudicious to let them escape."

"It is necessary to eliminate a potential threat," he emphasised, noticing Harry´s frown. Did the boy get cold feet suddenly?

Harry wrinkled his nose and opened his mouth to ask a question, but waited for a moment. When Voldemort signalled him an invitation to speak, he inquired, "Tonks? Do you mean Tonks, the young Auror?"

"Well, yes, but I was thinking more of her blood traitor mother, Andromeda and her mudblood husband, Ted Tonks," Voldemort explained. "They are supporters of the Order, despite that Andromeda was a Slytherin. Their daughter will fight; she is a dedicated Auror after all, trained personally by Mad-Eye Moody and joined the Order last year."

Seeing the uncomfortable expression on Harry´s face, he pressed on, "I don´t believe there is much hope that Bill could persuade her to turn her back on them or Minister Scrimgeour. That young witch has been groomed for her role as 'Dark wizard catcher'", he mimed quotation marks, "her whole life. Andromeda, and later Moody, poisoned her mind against the Dark side, her family heritage and the Dark Arts. Bella and Narcissa hate and despise her, and the other way around."

"Oh, ok, well. That´s a shame, Tonks is so funny and a rather nice person," Harry said. "She came to the Dursleys last year, to escort me to fly to Headquarters on brooms. I got the impression, well, I don´t really know, if she likes me for me, just Harry, or sees it only as her duty to protect the famous Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One. I don´t know how good she is as an Auror, I mean she´s rather clumsy at times, and she´s not very observant; for example, she didn´t notice or say anything about the locks on my bedroom door last summer. But she fought quite skilled in the Death Chamber in the Department of Mysteries back in May."

He swallowed the sudden lump in his throat. He was reminded of Sirius dying, again. Damm it, why did it still hurt so much?

"Her mum Andromeda was Sirius favourite cousin. Do you know so much about her because of Severus and Bella?" Harry asked.

Voldemort nodded. He again noticed the gloomy look on Harry´s face. Was the young man only sad because of the reminder of his godfathers family, and his death, or did he genuinely like that Auror girl? Would he try to save her because of some silly sentiment and thereby endanger himself?

"Marvolo? If – or when there should come up a chance for me to speak privately with Tonks, Nymphadora I mean, may I try to convince her to switch sides or stay out of the way?" asked Harry.

"Sure, you can try," replied Voldemort. "But don´t indulge in false hope. Don´t trust her, only because you like her or believe she may like you. You must disarm and silence her before she can turn on you. When the Ministry falls, we will give the Ministry personal and Aurors there one chance to switch sides or declare neutral. They must swear their loyalty to me, to us, on their life and magic. Those that won´t must die. We could never trust them not to start an uprising after a few weeks, months or years otherwise, and I don´t want half the Ministry imprisoned in Azkaban, what a nuisance."

Harry nodded and didn´t say anything about Tonks anymore, instead he had someone else on his mind. "Hmm, you mentioned Fletcher, Mundungus Fletcher," he sneered with a wicked gleam in his eyes. "Would you mind if I took care of him?"

"No, not at all," replied Voldemort, intrigued.

What interest could Harry have in that despicable excuse for a wizard? Severus wished to kill that pathetic scum for years. Why such a lowlife, petty criminal was a member of the Order of the Phoenix was a mystery; well he must be indebted to Dumbledore in some way.

Harry grinned fiendishly. "I don´t like him at all, and he deserted me last summer at a critical time. On that evening those two Dementors attacked me and my cousin, Fletcher was supposed to keep watch over me. He left his post, to do some haggling with some cauldrons which had fallen off a broom or some such nonsense. Mrs Figg was furious with him when he came back. She send him away again to inform Dumbledore."

Voldemort inhaled sharply at the mention of the Dementors, so not only would Umbridge pay for endangering Harry Potter, but Fletcher too. He smirked approvingly at the look of vengeful malice in the young man´s eyes. So much delicious darkness in such a handsome package.

"What about McGonagall?" enquired Harry after a moment, eager to move on.

"Minerva is the Order´s second in command, and she is Deputy Headmistress. Together with Albus, Scrimgeour, Moody, and Shaklebolt she is at the top of my 'To Execute List'," stated Voldemort, "but maybe – if you have an opportunity, talk to her. Minerva surely will want to question you about your different look and attitude. And, there are the other Heads of Houses, Flitwik and Spout. They are not in the Order as far as Severus knows, but loyal to Albus."

Harry nodded, pondering why Voldemort said Minerva, while calling the other teachers by their surnames. Did he know her personally? How old was she, was it possible they were together at school?

"Be careful. Try to find out what she and the others really think. Minerva was Albus´ favourite student and apprentice long ago, before she became Transfiguration mistress. She is a pureblood alright, from an old, respectable family, but she is strictly against Dark Arts and has always been on the Light side. Does Minerva know how far Albus´ manipulation of you went? Does she know the true reason why you were left at the Dursleys and how terrible they treated you?"

Harry frowned. "I don´t know. She never asked about my home life, and I never heard that she asked other students. Granger mentioned in first year that McGonagall had visited her home, to introduce the Muggle family to magic and explain about Hogwarts. Doesn´t Snape know anything? I assume the teachers talked often about the famous _Harry Potter _in the staff room." He spoke his own name in a tone of contempt, like Snape used to stress it in class the past five years.

"Severus got the impression she didn´t like it that Albus left you there with the Muggles," Voldemort replied. "Nevertheless, she accepted his arguments and she didn´t voice any concerns towards Severus that you might be abused as a child. What about Sirius? The Weasleys? Does she know and condone what happened or not? If she knew and agreed with Albus´ plans to forge you into the perfect weapon for the Order, the sacrificial lamb readied for slaughter, with no regards to your wellbeing or free will– then I expect you to show her what you truly are. Kill her."

Harry nodded with a grim expression, his lips pressed together.

"Try to ascertain what the older students and the teachers, especially the three Heads of Houses know or believe about the true reasons for the war. What are rumour and hearsay and what facts they truly know," he ordered.

Harry frowned. "OK, but how? I know whatever the Prophet prints is 99 % rubbish, but people read it and believe it. Most people are like stupid sheep, they don´t think at all."

"Yes, it´s sad but true. Ask why people follow me at all. If I´m as insane, evil and cruel like Dumbledore, the Prophet and the Ministry tell them, why would anybody support me? Don´t they understand that so many people resist, that they rally behind me because a good third of the magical population, Dark wizards, beings and creatures are repressed and vilified by the current government, actually for centuries, but especially this century? That age old traditions and ways to create, enhance, use and control magic are disappearing at an alarming rate since Albus is influencing Hogwarts, the Wizengamont, the public and the Ministry? This society is corrupt and stagnant.

"The Muggle-borns bring in fresh blood, but also their prejudice and increased erosion of knowledge and traditions in the name of progress. Magical potential overall is declining; wizards marrying muggles generation after generation dilutes magical blood. We both know that half-bloods can be magically very powerful and strong, as both of us and Severus prove, but if we three married Muggle woman – purely hypothetically, of course - our children would most likely be magically weaker, compared to offspring conceived with a pure-blood or another half-blood witch, or a powerful Muggle-born like your mother.

"Severus for example is not only the youngest Potions master in Britain since hundreds of years, but one of only a handful of Potion masters in Europe on his level of expertise. He didn´t take an apprentice until now, not only because of his special position in this war, but because there was no student – besides the former Weasley twins – that truly showed honest interest and talent in experimenting and creating new potions. I do regret killing you mother for this reason, she was very gifted in potions, talented in Charms."

Harry looked wistfully, smiling sadly.

"If you get a chance, ask why are the teachers not more worried about the danger of exposure to the Muggles? At least the Head of Houses have regular contact with Muggle families because of the Muggle-born students. Do they really have no concept of how dangerous Muggles could be if they turn on us or that Magic herself suffers, if there is no balance anymore?" Voldemort asked.

"Lucius shall do the same in his own way, in his DADA classes and whenever he gets a chance to stir up a conversation in the staff room into this direction. I don´t have much hope many will listen, though, they have been brainwashed for generations that all Slytherins and Dark wizards are evil. There is still a widespread mistrust or general apprehension against Muggles and Muggle-borns in wizarding society, but since Albus and his band of Muggle loving fools have gained so much influence, it is not politically correct to say that out loud. If you dare, you are instantly labelled as a Dark wizard, and those are all evil."

He sighted, but then smiled at Harry. "However, you´ll have to try, we want to recruit more supporters or at least get people to stay out of the way instead of blindly fighting against us. The wizarding word has been conditioned by the Light side for a very long time to equal Dark Arts as evil, and to believe that Muggles are rather harmless, but interesting fools. I don't deny that we did or do cruel things and fight fiercely, but there is so much more to the old Dark wizard traditions than the so called Unforgivables. For example, did Lucius tell you about that ritual to encourage specific plants to grow, the Harvest spell?"

Harry nodded, that had been very interesting, he would like to experience, to participate in such mighty, ancient, ritualistic group magic one day.

"Severus already tried a few times to bring up this topic in the staff room or during private talks, but Minerva or Albus waved him of, said he was paranoid or he shouldn´t spout Dark beliefs."

Harry frowned. During his time in the wizarding world, he had gotten the impression that wizards did not take muggles seriously and had very little knowledge of modern Muggle culture. Light side families like the Weasleys embraced everything 'Muggle' as modern and fashionable, and did not seem to think of Muggles as potential danger or to value old wizarding knowledge or traditions so very much. This attitude had to have come from somewhere.

The History of Magic class at Hogwarts was so boring, that nobody listened. That ghost only drowned on and on about Goblin wars, and had glossed over the history of the witch-hunts in third year. Harry remembered that summer essay about Wendelin the Weird, it had sounded like a joke, as if escaping the blazing pyres had been easy and fun. Recently, he had learned that nothing could have been further from the truth! Over a 100.000 people, wizards, witches and many, many Muggle women with knowledge in the Old Ways, Healing, Herbs, Childbirth and so on, or Muggle men who dared to voice an independent opinion to the Muggle Church, or to contemplate that Earth was perhaps not the centre of the universe, had been gruesomely tortured and murdered.

After this summer at Potter and Malfoy Manor, Harry realized that children from pure-blood families learned about magical history at home, from books in the family library, tutors or their parents or grandparents. Kids with Muggle background never discovered this stuff, if they didn´t look for themselves. He supposed in Slytherin and Ravenclaw they would pick up something from their pure-blood classmates and might search the library on their own.

Gryffindors were much more interested in Quidditch or pranks or snogging, as a rule, and did only what was absolutely necessary to get through school, despite being talented, with exceptions like Percy or Granger. Some, like Sirius, turned their back on Dark pure-blood teachings out of stupid teenage rebellion against their parents. What an irony of fate that now, he, Harry, did the same, only the other way around!

Suddenly Harry wondered if the estrangement between Percy and his family might have something to do with this. Percy had been teased and ridiculed by his younger brothers for his drive to learn, follow rules and rise up above the status of his dad. In second year, Percy had had a girlfriend, Penelope Clearwater, a Ravenclaw a pure-blood.

Harry remembered that Pansy, Blaise and Draco had said that their Muggle studies class was a laughing matter, like History of Magic, and from Lucius, Severus and the other Death Eaters of their generation he had heard the same.

Who was responsible for the Hogwarts curriculum? The teachers of course, the Headmaster, Deputy Headmistress, also the Ministry, and the Board of Governors, he supposed all had a say. Hm. Yes, it would be interesting to ask questions.

"I suppose so," Harry remarked. "I never thought about it before this summer. Why don´t they take better care of the Muggle-born students in their houses? Like explain to them for example why it´s so dangerous to expose the Wizarding world to other Muggles? They would save lives; after all, Dolohov´s team would not have to kill those students and their families today if they only kept their tongues in check. He told me that the Oblivators from the Ministry do not bother with the Muggle-born families, only if other people are exposed to Magic in an obvious way. For example like it happened at the Dursleys in the summer before my third year, when I blew up my aunt Marge and she floated very visibly across the evening sky of Little Winging."

"Indeed," Voldemort commented, "Surely there will be unrest in Gryffindor when the students realize that the Creevey brothers have not returned to Hogwarts. Stir up a discussion, gauge their reactions. What does Minerva think happened to them and why? What do the other students think?"

"Ok, will do," nodded Harry, then he had an idea. "Um, what more could we do about Muggle studies and History of Magic?"

"Do? How do you mean?"

"You and Lucius say old traditions and knowledge are getting lost. We agree that people do not know enough about Muggles to understand how dangerous they could be, if they found out about us. Some even want to tell the Muggles about us. Did you read that article about Carlotta Pinkstone the other day? She was recently let out of Azkaban and right away demonstrated in Diagon Alley for lifting the International Confederation of Wizards' Statute of Secrecy and telling Muggles that wizards exist? She even publicly performed magic, which lead to several short imprisonments over the past years, so at least somebody in the DMLE noticed that what she did was foolish and dangerous and tried to stop her."

"Oh, yes, I read that, what a naive, dim-witted flutter brain of a blood traitor. She´ll shut up pretty soon," sneered Voldemort viciously.

Harry quirked an eyebrow. "Ah, should we visit her and teach her a lesson?"

Voldemort smirked, "Oh? Would you like to accompany me?"

"Yeah! I´d like to," replied Harry, grinning. "Do make room in your busy agenda, my Lord."

Voldemort chuckled.

"Now, Pansy, Blaise and Draco said that their Muggle studies class was a laughing matter," Harry continued, "like History of Magic, and from Lucius, Severus and the other Death Eaters of their generation I heard the same. These subjects were as boring and ineffective during their time as it is now. I wonder if you can get Lucius into Hogwarts as the new DADA teacher, why not get competent teachers for those other subjects too?"

Voldemort regarded the younger wizard for a moment, the he smiled viciously. "Your proposal does have a lot of merit, I´ll look into it."

They walked a while in silence, having rounded the manor twice by now.

"By the way," Voldemort remarked suddenly, "plan with your friends how to keep your possible absence for up to two days on a weekend quiet. It may be necessary that someone impersonates you with Polyjuice, they´ll have to practise moving and speaking like you. You will need several doses, but Severus is brewing a large supply at Potter Manor, remember to pack a few vials before you leave for Hogwarts."

"Oh, yeah, that´s good that I won´t have to brew it myself. Why will I have to leave Hogwarts for a weekend, sir?" Harry asked curiously.

"There is a distinct possibility developing, that I shall take you, Lucius and Draco along on an important trip to France. The negotiations and arrangements are still under way."

Harry´s eyes lit up, that would be absolutely great to travel abroad! "Where will we go, Marvolo? When? Why? Can you tell me?" He bubbled with questions and nearly skipped along the garden path.

Voldemort smiled at the young wizard´s eagerness. "Most likely in September, to Paris, or Normandy. Top secret. To avoid suspicion, the two of us shall be travelling under a glamour, as father and son, or uncle and nephew, together with Lucius and Draco. The official reason would be something mundane, like family business, shopping and visiting an art exhibition, the opera or a theatre show. You´ll have to pack wizard dress robes and smart muggle casual. If we go – that is not yet decided."

"Oh, I´d love to, please take me along, please Marvolo!" Harry pleaded shamelessly.

"Wait and see Harry. You can only come along if your absence remains undiscovered. Lucius should be able to pull Draco out of school on a weekend, if it fits in with his teacher´s duties, like making rounds, or chaperoning Hogsmeade visits, and it's not a weekend with a Slytherin Quidditch game, but Albus would surely go all paranoid and make a fuss if you said you want to leave school with them together."

Harry was all excited, he´d love to pack a bag right away. Now, who could play Harry Potter convincingly? Perhaps Blaise or one of the twins?

"Marvolo, what can I tell my friends? I was thinking of asking Blaise, or Fred or George to play me."

Voldemort spoke sternly, "Harry, I already told you that you have to use your friends, but don´t tell them why you want them to do something. Really, you must train them to operate on a need to know basis. Everything else is a too high risk. The twins are a good choice, because if Blaise plays you, then Blaise and Draco would be missing from Slytherin over the weekend, someone could wonder where they are. You cannot even tell Draco in advance. Lucius will inform him shortly before they leave Hogwarts."

"Yes, sir," Harry mumbled, a mulish expression on his face, which caused Voldemort to draw his wand and tap it into his open palm, a clear threat that had the young wizard alert and on edge right away.

"These negotiations are extremely important for me, for our future success. I´d really like to take you along, Harry. Your presence, the presence of the famous Boy Who Lived at my side would be most helpful. And of course I´d like to show you a part of France, same as Lucius. Draco told us that you wish to see something of the world and we´d all enjoy indulging you.

"Nevertheless, you simply cannot tell something like this to other students, even if they are Slytherins. Somebody will forget to be careful, they will whisper or talk about this mission in a room or hallway where portraits hang around. In Hogwarts there is always a risk that other students or a teacher overhears them, then somebody else hears about the story, they talk with somebody else, and just like that, the portraits pick upon it and blab to Albus. Everything could be ruined and not only your life would be endangered. The portraits and ghosts report directly to the Headmaster of Hogwarts, for Salazar´s sake! You want us to win this war as quietly as possible, with as few innocent casualties as possible; I do understand that, even if you did not say anything. So stealth and staying in the shadows is the way we must operate."

Harry looked at Voldemort´s face while he spoke, worrying his bottom lip, but then he bowed his head, thoroughly chastised. "Yes sir, I´ll be careful."

~*~ TBC ~*~

AN: Thank you so much for reading, reviewing and adding my work to your Story and Author Alerts, Favourites and Communities. I am truly grateful. Special thanks to: anime1addictithon, Ansuya, billi24, BlackDeath6, bookworm1331, bookworm19065, breakingfaith, buggirl09, bunies, cara-tanaka, dazzled-in-al, divagurl99, Dy2297, ErisMalfoy1990, Evlqueen, farwalker, felicia2235, frizzyhead, GinHanelle, goddessofearth, Hornbugy, jamiemarsters, JayxLovesxSquirtle, jsmevans, Julia Malefoy, Kathrynswishweaver, kitayalera, LadyNightVamp, leobutler, Marked Goddess, Marwana, M Valerie, Mi55-b3cca, mizelissa, nessiy, Neverwill, neverwilli, Obsidian-Dragon-Phoenix, phantom guardian of shadow, phoenixluv, Poog, Pygmy Puff of Doom, Pyro007, RAYNE1692, Rugglet, Sahrielle, Sean Mulligan, sk8rslashluvr, Smally, SparklyCullens, SugarVivi, tenga, treebeard86, Tsuna De Vongola Decimo, whsdragon, xxSnowxxAngelxx


	7. Keeping Secrets

_Last time in __Just Talking: Harry's Hogwarts Mission_

_"Nevertheless, you simply cannot tell something like this to other students, even if they are Slytherins. Somebody will forget to be careful, they will whisper or talk about this mission in a room or hallway where portraits hang around. In Hogwarts there is always a risk that other students or a teacher overhears them, then somebody else hears about the story, they talk with somebody else, and just like that, the portraits pick upon it and blab to Albus. Everything could be ruined and not only your life would be endangered. The portraits and ghosts report directly to the Headmaster of Hogwarts, for Salazar´s sake! You want us to win this war as quietly as possible, with as few innocent casualties as possible; I do understand that, even if you did not say anything. So stealth and staying in the shadows is the way we must operate."_

_Harry looked at Voldemort's face while he spoke, worrying his bottom lip, but then he bowed his head, thoroughly chastised. "Yes sir, I'll be careful."_

~...~

After a moment Harry had another idea, so he looked up again and asked quietly, "Marvolo?"

"Yes?"

"Uhm, couldn't I just – well, I recently read something. Couldn't I put my friends or all Slytherins under a _Geas_ or something like that?" Harry asked hopefully.

Voldemort quirked a questioning eyebrow and made a gesture for Harry to continue.

"I know it is possible to control secrets this way," Harry explained, "the other person cannot talk about the secret to anyone that doesn't already know of it. We, I mean Severus and I, did something similar before telling the twins, Remus, Luna, Cory, Blaise and Pansy about my and Hedwig's true self, Potter Manor, and why I was willing to cooperate with you; or later why Neville Longbottom is really Cory LeStrange. I also made the LeStrangers and the other Death Eaters visiting my manor swear on their magic not to give the location or existence of Potter Manor away without my consent."

Voldemort narrowed his eyes in thought. "Well, yes, of course. Which definition of a Geas did you read?"

Harry replied promptly, "A Geas is a either a voluntary vow to keep information hidden, or a curse, an obligation placed forcefully upon a person to not be able to speak about certain information. They will be unable to utter the forbidden words. They will be punished if they try, like feel a stab of pain or cough and choke, depending on the wishes of the caster."

"That is correct," Voldemort agreed, before pointing out, "Now consider that the people you mentioned all made their vows voluntary, which is a tremendous difference to cursing someone or a large number of people or a certain room with such a Geas. You have to have a very good grasp on the Mind Arts to get it right to guard a complex secret and not just a word, like a certain name or a location. Do you remember how I did that to protect you before you and your friends were presented at that first Death Eater meeting?"

Harry nodded."Yes, sir."

"However," Voldemort said, "I believe it is important that you train yourself to analyze and compartmentalize such information handling better and, as I already pointed out, to train your friends to work on a need to know basis. Don't misunderstand me; I do not doubt your abilities or power. In time you will learn how to cast such spells very precisely, same as Oblivate and Imperius. Severus and Bella tell me that your abilities to Occlude, or to use Imperius and Oblivate are really good for a sixteen year old, and I agree, especially after you allowed me into your mind several times during this summer."

Hearing this, Harry couldn't repress a proud smile breaking all over his face. Voldemort's lips quirked for a moment into an answering smile, it was simply impossible to resist a beaming Harry.

Then he turned serious again and cautioned the younger wizard, "Harry, you should not depend too much upon magic to solve every problem or situation. Sometimes good old fashioned caution, cunning and secrecy are just as good or even better. You hid yourself behind a perfect mask by acting and keeping information to yourself for years, fooling everybody. And do you think Severus would be where he is today without his paranoia, his spying and misleading skills? Or that he or you would still be alive, for that matter?"

Seeing the thoughtful expression and the frown on the younger man's brow, he added, "Your parents are dead because they trusted in Albus, a friend and the protective power of the Fidelius charm."

Harry flinched, he cleared his throat. This was a sobering thought.

Voldemort paced back and forth a minute, before he stopped in front of Harry again, addressing his main concern. "I must say I am rather apprehensive about you young people keeping everything from this summer a secret. It does not matter if you all are quite adept at Occlumency, and if all your friends or the whole of Slytherin house were under a Geas – if you or any two students in the know were talking in the Great Hall, or a hallway or a classroom about this summer, what you did and know, or our possible trip to Paris, without casting adequate protection, like Muffliato and other anti-eavesdropping or silencing spells – that is enough for a portrait or a ghost to pick up a few words and tell Albus potentially dangerous information. This could lead to suspicion and questions that we do not need at all. Be especially wary in the Defence classroom, because I'm absolutely sure that Albus will check on the portraits in there regularly. He shall observe Lucius and try to discover his hidden agenda."

Harry looked surprised and contrite at the Dark Lord, he had not really thought about viewing the matter from this point of view before, but it made a lot of sense. "OK, thank you Marvolo, you're right of course. I'll tell everyone to consider this and to be really careful. Are Severus' rooms or the Slytherin common room and their dormitories safe?"

Voldemort nodded, "Yes. You can speak freely in Severus' office or his private quarters if he allows that and until now the Slytherin quarters have been safe. The few portraits down there are only loyal to Salazar Slytherin, his heir and the current Slytherin Head of House. The Bloody Baron is loyal to our house too, of course. Best ask Severus again after he has had time to check the dungeons for any new or exchanged portraits right before the start of term."

Harry grinned relieved. "Ok, I'll remember." His head was whirling with all that he had to keep track of, but he enjoyed their intense talks today nevertheless. What a difference to the Headmasters' half-truths and double meaning hints that were so often dropped like breadcrumbs to a pet!

~ TBC ~

AN-1: Thank you all so much for your patience. I don't have any good excuses for the long wait or this shortest ever chapter, sorry, just the usual RL often hindering my muse and I did – and still do - need to work with Mykkila09 on the next few RDA chapters. Thanks again for reading, reviewing and adding my (and Mykkila09's ) work to your Alerts or Favourites. More is coming soon.

AN-2: I am so terribly excited to finally experience the new, final Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows film after watching so many clips, like the trio climbing out of the lake after jumping of the dragon where Harry tells them that You-Know-Who knows what they are doing. Watching the London premiere on July 7th was so fabulous and emotional, and just now I'm following the NY premiere, hear the fans screaming like mad, but can't see much. On July 13th, Wednesday evening its time, my family and I got tickets, yeah! Great to live in Germany, we get to see HP 7.2 before the US. Bet you there across the pond are now sooo jealous… *wink*

OMG! Just now they said on MTV live-stream Severus Snape won in the MTV World Cup and Alan Rickman got a big silver goblet as prize…like the GOF! I voted for Snape, of course ;-)


End file.
